Thursday, July 5, 2007

there will be trials of many kinds

Bugs and I have a love/hate relationship.
They love me...I hate them.
I already mentioned my dark nemesis,
the cicada, the summer of 2003 in DC.
But bugs, in general, think I am fabulous.
I am like a buggy beacon of light they are drawn to on a dark night.
I don't know if it the faint scent of peanut butter and jelly
that surrounds me since I am a mom of little ones,
or they just know, instinctively,
that they will get a good reaction out of me.
A couple of nights ago we had some of our old youth kids,
who are now in college, over for coffee and some talking about Jesus.
We had just started talking about how God uses trials in our life
to purify us and shape us and my answer to the question posed was,
"Phhhhhhhbbbbbbbt!"
A nice raspberry of a sound.
Scott raised his eyebrows, a little surprised.
"It was a bug - on my lips - a bug."
Everyone laughed.
Then the excitement began.
This tiny flitting thing began whipping around my head.
"Get it off!" (Me)
"I don't see anything, Sue." (Scott)
"I can feel it - I'm itchy all over." (Me)
"It's on your shoulder." (Leanne, old youth kid)
If you have ever seen the maori mosquito dance performed by
the native people of New Zealand,
you will have some idea of what I looked like.
There was a general slapping, shaking out of my shirt, and
flipping of hair, punctuated by shrieks of,
"Where is it? Do you see it? Did it just go down my shirt?"
I know Scott was just praying I wouldn't start shedding clothes.
I remember my grandma telling me
she had once thought of stepping out of her pants,
when a lizard ran up her leg in the orchard,
so casting off clothes when critters are involved is in my blood.
Either I killed it or it was scared to death
and flew for its very tiny life, but I no longer felt it.
The college kids just kind of stared at me amazed and,
frankly, I think, a little frightened.
Scott got the conversation back on track but I felt
I had already made my contribution to the teaching.
A personal demonstration of a trial.
Trial by bug.

4 comments:

Erica said...

Sue, lots of laughing out loud from DC!! Dad and Van were just staring at me..."What are you doing?" they asked. "Just reading Sue's blog. Have you read it yet?" "Oh yeah, it's a good one!" We have all benefited from your trial today! I love you...and will try not to be so elusive this next week! Erica

Matthew said...

Good job getting a book deal. Glad to hear the good news.

www.matthewsblog.waynesborochurchofchrist.org

Unknown said...

Sue, you are THE BEST!!! I laugh every time I get your blog and have been known to whine when there isn't a new installment!!!
I'm thinkin' "best seller list"!!!...
--cheri

susanna said...

I'm glad that you enjoyed the bug trial - it's always good to laugh, isn't it?

Thanks for the kind words about the book deal, Matthew! It still doesn't quite seem real!

Sue