I took down our Christmas decorations on Saturday. The act of packing away the baubles: the jing tinglers and flu floopers (thanks Dr. Seuss for the proper and official names of all the stuff I hang about the house!) always makes me thoughtful. Lost in reverie as I was un-decorating a metal tree on the front patio, I met a marvelous creature – one that Dr. Seuss himself would probably have enjoyed. I nearly missed him, and if the tree had been a realistic-looking item instead of a stylized metal structure, I would have. It was a walking stick bug, about five inches long. He was calmly exploring the branches and the bright red and blue and clear ornaments hanging from the gold filigree branches. No doubt, though, he was a bit confused at why there was nothing to eat on this crazy tree. After I ran for my camera and snapped a couple of shots, I helped him down with the help of a magazine (He was actually quite easy to get along with, fragile, long legs moving gracefully across a copy of Coastal Living). I took a few more pictures before I moved him to my garden. The last time I saw him, he was dancing happily across my wandering Jews.
I went back to my job, but my mind stayed on that little creature. I did a little research (life cycle, eating habits, defenses). Marvelous. It’s unfathomable to me how much care and thought and precision went into the creation of such a marvelous bug. A bug. Just one of thousands of bugs and creatures created for this world, not to mention all the plants and flowers, rocks and sand and volcanoes. Add that to how they all blend together to live and sustain each other in harmony. Fabulous.
Let yourself ponder the depth of God’s capability. His creativity, His exactness, the extent of His care in creating this world. My New Year’s hope for you is that you feel God’s infinite and complete love surrounding you and that you can start 2019 safe in the assurance that a God who applies so much effort, time, and meticulous detail to fashioning a bug that looks like a stick offers us so much more.
Happy New Year!
