Danger Signs

My husband killed a millipede in the room the other night and scraped it into the trash can.  Once the lights were off in the room, a bright light flashing every few seconds could be seen even through closed eyelids.  The remainder of the millipede was still on the floor bioluminescing – probably to warn off predators that it was oozing cyanide.

We have like warnings flashing in God’s Word to stay away from things that are dangerous to us.  The fruit that Adam and Eve ate was off limits, they had been explicitly instructed by God not to eat it, and their decision to disobey brought spiritual and physical death to them and all people. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. “ Proverbs 14:12 & 16:25 The Bible is God’s love letter to you.  When He does say “Thou shalt not”(putting up a fence), it is not that He’s a killjoy trying to ruin all your fun, He really has your best interest at heart. His limits keep us from exposing ourselves to the destructive cyanide of sin.  JFK paraphrased GK Chesterton, saying, “Don’t ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up.”  Sin will always take you farther than you wanted to go, keep you longer than you wanted to stay, and cost you more than you intended to pay. When we sin, it is like cutting ourselves.  When God forgives, it heals that wound.  But sin has consequences – the gash hurt us and most likely upset others, and there may be lasting effects such as a scar.

Warnings from Israel’s History as recorded in the Old Testament: “These things have become examples for us so that we won’t desire what is evil, as they did.  So don’t worship false gods as some of them did, as Scripture says, “The people sat down to a feast which turned into an orgy.”  We shouldn’t sin sexually as some of them did. Twenty-three thousand of them died on one day.  We shouldn’t put the Lord to the test as some of them did. They were killed by snakes.  Don’t complain as some of them did. The angel of death destroyed them. These things happened to make them an example for others. These things were written down as a warning for us who are living in the closing days of history. So, people who think they are standing firmly should be careful that they don’t fall.  There isn’t any temptation that you have experienced which is unusual for humans. God, who faithfully keeps his promises, will not allow you to be tempted beyond your power to resist. But when you are tempted, he will also give you the ability to endure the temptation as your way of escape. 1 Corinthians 10:6-13 God’s Word Translation

War with WeeWees

One interesting ant we’ve seen a lot of in Belize is the leaf cutter (or as the locals here call them WeeWee ants). They can truly decimate a plant. We “foiled” them at our apartment by surrounding tempting plants with these pellets we obtained from The Garden Center in Cayo which the leaf cutter ants take back to their underground, fungus growing “baby nurseries”.  Once there, the pellets “explode” and supposedly take out the colony. We noticed that when we sprinkled them around our potted plants, the pellets disappeared overnight, but the leaves remained on the plants and we never saw any ants.

Before our Summer vacation, the leaf cutters  were already hard at work carrying away leaves and the beautiful flowers

from one of the gorgeous flamboyant trees in front of my husband’s classroom.

When back from Summer vacation, they had eaten half the tree and had marched back and forth between the jungle and the tree so often that they had worn this path into the grass almost foot wide (I guess the Pledge can is there for scale). There can be up to 8 million ants in one colony.

My husband sprayed that Fish bug killer around the tree and along the path (probably didn’t stay too long because it is rainy season), but it seemed to deter the ants.  My husband continues his saga….Well, I was so proud of myself for saving the one tree, all they did was move to the other big flamboyant tree next to it. There were many more on this one. It is like they redoubled their efforts. There were two trails now going to it and they did not merge until just on the other side of the fence in the jungle. They are smart…. they saw that one line was destroyed so they built two lines. But they are not that smart.  They were also attacking a hibiscus bush on the back side of my building. Their line for this one joined with the other two lines but instead of just going 20 yards and connecting, they went all the way around the building then connected. I sprayed again both the new big tree and the old and the hibiscus. I cannot be outdone by an ant brain. But I was thinking, if you added up all of their brains, it would probably be the size of a basketball.

War with an army of ants. Who will win?

Stay Tuned…