More Critters

Caterpillars have been everywhere this month. 

First there were the ones that coated the tree outside the dining room window. 

Then came a horde of small black ones that, practically overnight, devastated our lawn. Now, our lawn was nothing precious to behold in the first place, but at least it was green. By the time these critters were finished with it, there was nothing left but dry brown stubble.

This morning, as we were finishing up our writing project for the morning (getting some long overdue notes ready to mail), Ed called from outside where he had just finished hanging out the laundry. 

"Do the boys have a minute for me to show them something?"

"Is it gross?"

"Um, yeah."

And out they were like shots, ready to see what was there!

Ed had discovered this caterpillar just outside the kitchen door, and it was a doozy. Thick, plump, multiple-waisted. We have no idea what kind of caterpillar it is, or what it will become. But, look at the size of it!

Bigger around than Ed's index finger, it made me think of a well stuffed cigar which, if nicked in the right place, would spill its stuffing all over.

I wonder what other amazing critters are hiding just outside my door? I wonder if I really want to know.

Seeking and Seeing

Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:12-13)

Sometimes that seeking is a first step in drawing close to God - a first knowing of Him, a first hearing of His love and calling, a first realization that 'there must be more'. 

But sometimes it's a step along the way, on a path that's already been travelled for years and will last for many more years.

After reading this passage as part of our study this morning, three of us spoke of how we could put it into practise. My choice? To ask God to show me Himself each day, to open my eyes to the way He was working in my life to make Himself known to me. You know, to realize that some of those 'coincidences' of life were really God ordering things for a purpose, or to see the changes He is working in me to make me more like Him. To see Him. To notice. To appreciate. He says, after all, that if we seek Him we will find Him.

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The base of the tree trunk was covered with fuzz yesterday, and a long line of caterpillars climbed their way up to one branch where they molted. Yesterday, fascinated by the parade of fuzz that lasted most of the afternoon, I neglected to look at what happened after the molting.

 

Today, when the branch was once again a soft furry mass of little bodies, I determined to look more closely at what happened next. Where did those critters go? 

I took the camera with me again, but this time it stayed strapped in its case for a long time. For more than 10 minutes I looked for signs of the path the caterpillars took yesterday. And finally I found a section of chewed leaves. 

It was at the far end of the same main branch that the caterpillars had taken as a changing room yesterday. Was this the right area? I circled around that branch, searching. Would I find chrysalises or cocoons? Newly molted caterpillars? Something else? Anything at all?

What I found was this:

A delicate basket of spider's webbing filled with... what? Could these be the little bodily remains of countless caterpillars? I didn't go digging around to find out.

On a different sub-branch, though, after almost 15 minutes of searching, my eyes found this:

... and then this: 

Two small chrysalises! Striped, slightly twisty, precious little houses! (Or are they cocoons? As I'm unsure what species I'm looking at, I can't say for sure, because I don't know enough about how to distinguish them.)

They're both in this shot. Can you see them?

After a few more minutes of searching, puzzling, wondering, I realize that these really are the only two on the tree. So the mystery remains: What has happened to all those little bodies?

I'm so thankful to have seen these two chrysalises, especially since, less than an hour later when Ed went out to have a look for himself, they were gone. I don't know how long they were there, but we were aware of them for less than an hour, and I had the privilege of seeing them. Beautiful gift that was!