This past weekend the mosquitoes were active in large numbers. Since it has been very dry, with less than half our usual rainfall, I was watering our gardens.
The flying bloodsuckers swarmed me despite the citronella bands which have been working. I resorted to long sleeves and netted hat. The insects swarmed around the netting, landing and crawling around to find a way to the source of carbon monoxide which they detected.
Now the natural instinct is to attack the attackers and swat at them. But with the netting that makes no sense. So seeing the mosquitoes, hearing them buzzing as they fly, it is best to ignore them. That took a conscious discipline.
It is only now that I am back to work that I see a lesson in this.
It is our natural instinct to rebel against God to live our own way. It takes discipline, effort, focus to resist the tendency to act like God and to serve Creator instead.
God’s grace is like a netted hat. It protects. We need to trust that net, that safety net, if you like.
How easy it is to swat at temptation and trouble, which does no good since God has it covered.
As Thomas à Kempis says, “That I may open my whole heart to You…and may withdraw my heart from all created things…Then all that is within me shall rejoice exceedingly, when my soul is united perfectly with my God” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 4, chapter 13).
July 5, 2016
nopew
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