I Watched a Bug Today!

by Dan Wolfe
Evansville, IN

She slowly walked around on the window, searching for a way out. (I knew it was a “she” because it was a ladybug!) She was trapped inside the house where she didn’t want to be— yet she could see the trees and plants where she longed to be. This caused her to get very frustrated and aggravated. It looked so easy to get where she wanted to go, but she couldn’t break through the barrier. She would pace a little and then fly, banging herself against the glass, then pace, then bang, then pace, then bang. I watched this cycle go on over and over and over.

“Possessing Peace” Bible Study by Loretta Walker (Click on the image for more information.)

After a time, it seemed to me she just gave up. She stood motionless on the window for more than ten minutes. (This in bug time is ten years! Just kidding, I think it’s only seven years!) She didn’t move, she didn’t crawl, and she didn’t fly or bang against the window anymore. She gave up trying to get out of her predicament using just her own strength and her own ways. Maybe she just realized that she couldn’t do it on her own.

It was then that I reached out with my big hand to grab her to take her outside, but it seemed as if when I reached my hand out to her, she jumped into it. I carried her out of one room and into another with her just sitting there on my hand not trying to fly away. I walked through the door and outside, and then lifted my hand to the sky. She just sat there for a while as if she didn’t want to leave. Then slowly her wings fluttered, spread out, and off she went.

I have been where she was. I have been in a situation where I didn’t know how I got there, didn’t know how to handle it, and tried desperately with everything in me to get out of it, and I couldn’t. I felt like I was banging my head against the wall.

“Pause” Devotional by Sharon Rabon (Click on the image for more information.)

Then I finally realized, as did the ladybug, that I couldn’t figure a way out of the situation I was in all by myself. I needed to stop trying on my own and let Somebody bigger and stronger than I reach out His hand to carry me and show me the way. And you know, it’s kinda’ strange, but I didn’t want to leave His hand either.