by Susan Diamond
Serena lives two doors away from 560 acres of forest preserve. A blessing. Abundance. A whole lot of critters, varmints, and crawly things to live among. She was very nearly One with nature.
Yet, just a few steps to the north of her suburban sub-division is a strip shopping center, Starbucks and a Wal-mart.
Apparently God loves a paradox.
A neighborhood of convenience stores and a hiking trail is fertile ground for Serena, a faith-loving, bargain-loving, nature-lover.
One mid-summer afternoon after a morning of house cleaning followed by a shopping trip where she ticked off more than a few items on her to-do list, Serena decided to reward herself with a walk in the woods.
She chose a challenging path with steep hills and unsteady ground. She loved to pray while she walked and in between conversation points with the Almighty she noticed her vision was blurry. She closed her right eye, looked up to the tips of the trees and confirmed that she could indeed see clearly the leaves and branches all around her. Next she closed her left eye and saw nothing but a blurry landscape. Yep. Just as she thought. She lost her right contact lens.
She corrected her lopsided vision by keeping her right eye closed and scanning the ground all around her for the missing tiny disk. She saw the strangest thing. Her lightly tinted contact lens had miraculously grown legs and was walking slowly toward her from behind her on the trail.
Lord have mercy! It was a beetle balancing the missing contact lens on its tiny flat back, bringing it to her.
Now, if this were a Disney movie there would be nothing strange about the scene at all. But this was happening to Serena and there was no film crew in sight.
The beetle stopped at her feet and presented its gift. Serena reached down and with her pointer finger extended, she lifted the contact lens off the back of the beetle.
She took her water bottle and shook out a drop to moisten the lens. Serena then popped the lens back in and her sight was clearly restored.
There’s a message here she thought. And she looked down at the rescue beetle from a different perspective.
Maybe it’s about the ability of the small to help the mighty. Or, the message could be that God would never give you a load too large to carry. And just maybe, it’s a simple nudge from God reminding us that all creatures, great and small, live together and we should care for each other. Those who fly, those who swim, those who walk upright on land and those who use all fours. Even those that slither and crawl are helpers to God and essential for a life that is good. And yes, life is good.
READ MORE by this author
