For those of you who don’t know what entomology is- it is the study of insects. Some days it is really cool and entertaining that she is an entomology minor; it is kind of hilarious that our family know the scientific of some insects and refers to flies as “pesky diptera!” It is so great to hear her excitement as she examines the bugs by our front door as we walk in at night. However, some days it isn’t too exciting… mainly just today. Why you might ask? As part of her minor in entomology my sister needs to have an insect collection with specific species. The latest she has needed are beetles- not a punch buggy beetle… or a cute little ladybug… but dung beetles- a beetle that eats poop. Mmmm! Unfortunately my mom is equally as excited about the insect collection and was with me when I was picking up some dog poop in the backyard of the dog I am watching. It was a horrifying discovery when I realized that it was moving in my plastic bag wrapped hands! I was disgusted… I tied the bag and was ready to be done with that. My mom- hearing my disgust excitedly asked if they were dung beetles. Oh no was my thought… I told her that we could just tie the bag and send it to my sister because I did not want to look through it and find a beetle… but I lost. My mom convinced me (after I found out where my sister got the carrion beetle from) to get a stick and long story short now my sister has a dung beetle for her collection….
But it got me thinking, and you all probably are thinking how disgusting this story was, about how these beetles are just like God in our lives. Dung beetles feed primarily on feces, and if they didn’t think how much crap would be piled up all over the place because it would just sit there. We think poop is gross and disgusting but let us rewind a bit. Poop for the most part starts out as food- as intake- as a wonderful meal, think of your favorite food and how delicious it is and how much happiness it brings you. It is just like so many of the gifts God created and shares with us… but when this food enters our bodies it goes through this digestive process and comes out looking nothing like what it started as(except corn of course :P). But seriously, isn’t that like a lot of the good and perfect things God has created to share with us? He created sex and alcohol, but when they get into some human hands they are twisted away from God’s design and turned into “poop”- looking nothing like what God designed them as. Even something good like art can be twisted when it is used to bring glory to the artist and not the creator of the artist- so many things are twisted into “poop”.
However, God is there in the midst of the poop we create… where nothing else wants to be, where other people avoid… in the middle of our crap he is there to help us- He helps us work through and get rid of the mess we create. He doesn’t say- you did this, you ruined my creation- but instead enters into the beautiful thing we messed up so he can help us get it back to the beautiful thing it once was because he is the one that knows its true design.
Apparently a dung beetle will roll away its ball in a “straight line despite all obstacles”. Is that not SO like God? He knows the path- it isn’t a winding path, but the straight and narrow and he is going to lead us to his truth, despite all obstacles. I just think it is so cool how even the seemingly grossest of things points to how magnificent and glorious He is! And if we don’t let God into our crap…. It will just pile and pile up, because there is no one else who is willing to deal with all of it like he is…
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