By: Judith Hargett

The creature crept from room to room searching for that spot that might provide just a little comfort.   That creature was me.  Or, was it I?  Well.  It was one of us.  My bout with self-diagnosed flu was getting old.  I was tired of the tender skin and non-stop aching.  What I needed was a spell of warm weather, but that time clearly had not arrived.  A blue jay just skidded across the bird bath. It looked like he was training for an Olympic skiing event.  The little concrete pond where Mr. Jay got a drink yesterday was now frozen solid.

Refocusing on inside creeping things, I notice an orange speck making its way slowly across the floor.  With great effort I haul myself close enough to the speck to determine that it is a ladybug.  Very carefully I transport the wanderer to a nearby plant where I believe the creature will be more content, maybe find some moisture and a tasty aphid to eat.  Or, if this ladybug likes dust, its hit a bonanza anywhere in the house.

The ladybugs arrive in masse each fall.  For a few days they cover our window screens and lurk by the doors hoping to gain entrance and a cozy place to winter.  There are always a few that succeed in this mission.  They emerge periodically throughout the winter.  I don’t mind sharing our space with a few; they seem so cheerful and full of purpose.  But, I wondered, what do they eat inside our house in the winter?

A quick trip to the Internet revealed some stuff I’d just as soon not know.  Ladybugs, also called ladybirds, are beetles and they’re certainly not always ladies.  The ladybug might actually be a guy bug and if the food supply runs low, they’re not above cannibalism.  They can also bite…and emit a foul odor when threatened.  Kind of spoils my high opinion of them. 

But who am I to question this little critter created by God to serve a certain purpose? Humans have plenty of their own issues.   What must God think of his human creation at times?  David expressed his awe of God’s relationship with man eloquently in Psalm 8:3-5: “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?  You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.”  Wow!  We are tiny specks, no bigger than ladybugs, when considering all of God’s creation and yet He elevated us to a place of honor.  Shouldn’t that make us want to be pleasing in His sight? 

Hmm. I guess the plant wasn’t to the ladybug’s pleasing.  I see it traveling north across the bathroom mirror right now.  Wonder if ladybug will see that same scary lady I sometimes see when I look in that mirror?  Well, I’m not gonna’ look; I’m going to creep on back to the couch.