Creation in the Country

I have had three to six bright green, tree frogs stuck to my kitchen window every evening for the last week. Those little fellas brought to mind a prank my husband used to play on unsuspecting young fireman when they came to his fire station. During his service, he was stationed at a firehouse closer to the country than the city. Their usual rountine after supper was to mop the floors in the kitchen. They kept the mops outside the building and apparently to tree frogs, the strings of the mops made for a good home. On any given evening you could, upon mop retrival, shake out a good dozen frogs from each mop. Here is where the prank plays in....instruct the new guy, after dinner and dishes, to fetch the mop so that the floors can be cleaned. It is of utmost importance in the scheme of the prank to give him careful instructions to spray the mop head with a good, strong, steady stream of hot water. While the unsuspecting poor guy is turning on the water and retriving the mop, the guys have cleared the building and are watching from around the corner. As he holds the mop, which reaches about chest and neck level, and sprays a good stream of hot water, out jumps zillions of upset tree frogs with their sticky pad ready to adhere to the nearest surface. That would be a poor fireman's chest and neck. What a shock, for a young city guy, as you get bombarded with angry sticky tree frog jumping all over you and to boot a group of your peers rolling in the grass hysterical with laughter.

I don't shoot my little green friends with hot water, I just leave them be. I smile at how fortunate I am that I live in the country and have tree frogs on the window over my kitchen sink. It is not only tree frogs I am blessed with. My country oasis is a treasure of nature. Our property is brimming with toads and frogs...bullfrogs,chorous frogs and cricket frogs. I have wonderful brown long thin walking sticks on my deck. There is limitless varieties of colorful moths stuck to my screen door every morning. Hanging from the pergola, over our deck, are three hummingbird feeders where whole families feed, sometimes as many as nine or ten at one time. At my bird garden, a regular occurance during the day, are brilliant sunny yellow finches, round, fat, capped chickadees and flaming red cardinals. In the spring, I can watch the bluebirds inspect the houses we have put up to give them a place to increase their families. After dark and well into the night, we can lay in our bed and hear the hoot of owls in the trees near our window. Playfull chipmunks scurry up our trees and early the other morning my husband had a baby wild rabbit follow Olivia (our basset hound) and him on a walk around the pasture.

We are blessed with an abundance of trees. Homeschool care-groups would bring their children out for me to give them an afternoon of tree identification. We have southern pines, many varities of oaks and maples, wild cherry, sassafras, hawthorn, sweetgum, mulberry, magnolias, dogwood,persimmon, and a fruit orchard..peach, apple and pear. From spring through fall the landscape is painted with the bright faces of wildflowers. Cheery black-eyed susans, tender violets, hardy goldenrod, and airy coreopsis are there waiting to be picked. Soooo very, very much of God's handiwork on display.

How then, could anyone who has ever spent one moment in the country, not acknowledge the power of our creator!?..."By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. He gathers the waters of the seas into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere him. For he spoke, and it came to be, he commanded and it stood firm." Psalm 33:6-9. "God made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding." Jeremiah 10:12. And.."How many are your workd, O Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number-living things both large and small." Psalm 104:24-25. The next time a butterfly flitters by you, or you hear the sweet song of a song bird, or notice the cherry face of a wildflower... take a moment and acknowledge and revere our Creator, our King of the Universe with your praise and adoration!