Into the Fire

I don’t know about your part of the country, but we have slugs here. Lots of slugs at particular times of the year like now: Spring. One day they just seem to appear. En masse. A variety of “breeds”, too. And sizes. I know, slugs are gross. They’re slimy and they leave their trail of slime wherever they go. The buggers eat some flowers and can ruin a garden. But I have to say I’ve learned some things from slugs.

Some folks take great delight in pouring salt on the creatures, watching them shrivel into dried up shells of their former selves. Others put out slug bait which is apparently very attractive to them until it dissolves them into a gooey heap.

You’ll no doubt think this is slightly—well, not slightly, probably very—goofy. One afternoon when I was getting the grain for our horses out of the aluminum garbage can where we keep it stored, a tiny bit of it spilled on the floor of the little feed shed. I happened to look down and saw a slug there as if he was waiting to be fed, too. I figured if he’d climbed all the way in there to eat a few drops of spilled grain, more power to him. At least he wasn’t munching on the flowers, right? No big deal. Okay, the next day I’m in there to get the feed ready for our horses, and there’s the little slug again. I assume it was the same one. He figured this was the place to get a free meal. Well, that got me to thinking about slugs.

They’re pathetically ugly. They’re slimy, can be destructive to plant life, and besides myself, I can’t think of anyone who much likes them. But the critters are so determined. They move at negative 50 mph, so it takes them soooo long to get anywhere, and yet they do what they have to do to get to where they perceive they need to be to survive—with enemies eager to destroy them all along their way.

I am not a bug person. I don’t like bugs. I detest spiders. I will zap a fly or mosquito in no time flat. So don’t go getting the idea that I’m nature girl here. On the contrary, I have a hard time understanding the creative side of our God which included His insect population. But the determination of that slow moving slug who waited to be fed along with our horses just reminded me of the great lengths he would travel to find his supply of what he needed. In order to get to that spot, he had to maneuver up the rough hewn wooden step, traverse over the dips and curves of the metal tracks for the sliding doors, and slink along the slivered floor of that old shed. For him it was worth it. I couldn’t hate him for that. In fact, I made sure he got a little extra grain for his efforts.

Father, your supply is what we need. It is there for us, but sometimes what we need requires more of us than we’re willing to give or to do. I’m amazed at what you can show us from the simplest things in this life. Are your offerings worthy of our effort? How determined are we to work and wait for even the “crumbs from your table”? Yet you offer us the whole banquet. Eager to provide the rich delicacies of dining with you in the Spirit. Lord, help me to be determined to get to you in a deeper, more satisfying way. That I could learn from the ways of a slug says a multitude of things about me. I hope it makes you smile. I love you, God. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.