Pretty Dangerous – Green Caterpillar

“But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” James 1:14-15

‘oooo’ turned into ‘OWWWWW’ in less than a minute! And all I did was try to help! I was visiting someone and as we sat in the driveway, I saw a pretty large green caterpillar crawling across the cement. It was VERY pretty! To me, it looked like a woolly bear caterpillar I used to see as a kid, but green!   Admiring it, I thought, “hey… that thing could get squashed!”

I have to admit to being rather picky about creatures of the crawling and flying kind. Had it been a mosquito, I would have squashed it myself. A roach or fly… the same thing. If it had been a bee, I would have left it alone to simply fly away. But I had never seen a big, fat, pretty, bright green caterpillar before. Being worried for it’s safety, I picked it up and put it in the grass.

It was less than a minute and happened slowly, when the tips of my fingers began to burn. My first thought was, ‘maybe that thing is poisonous!’ After a few more minutes I KNEW that thing was poisonous! The tips of my thumb and forefinger were burning! Having been stung bit by bugs before, I knew it would pass, but the lesson would not. It reminded me of sin!

Sin is a category that carries the same kind of attraction and pain… and urge and lesson. Sin usually looks good and seems attractive. I’ve needlessly learned many lessons the hard way! Some things I do, like Paul said in Romans 6, I keep doing… even tho I don’t want to. Once I let that bugger in, sometimes it’s hard to get it out! So I’ve learned my lesson of the Big Green IO caterpillar (yes I looked it up like I would a Bible verse). I’m leaving it alone!

What sin have YOU allowed to sting you?  And what are you doing to make it go away?

Technically it’s still morning… I took Katie for a standard test VERY EARLY this morning.  May I say to you all .. HAPPY THANKSGIVING.  You are ALL SOOOO SPECIAL.