Khaki Colored Frog

My grandchildren are taking after their Poppy, Meme and Daddy in the love of nature. This weekend while they were spending the night we found a grasshopper and pretty cool moth floating in some standing water outside. Well there was only one thing to do but fish them out and take a look. My sweet cupcake was a little hesitant but honey bun {Aiden} reached right in and grabbed that bright green grasshopper by the leg. He laid it on the outside table and then went back to fish out the moth. This reminded me of an entry I had made in a journal i keep. This is what I wrote...

One day last week my sweet honey bun and I were enjoying the fresh air outside when we came upon a little tiny frog in the flower bed. The little guy was not much larger than a dime, a khaki brown color with dark brown spots, and a very fast jumper. Well, we had no choice....it's in the Grammie's book of rules when you come across a frog with your grandchild you must chase around trying to catch it. I believe some of these rules are there to keep us grandparents humble:) It was very fun and my honey bun was so sweet..."Go Meme! Me do it too Meme"! followed by laughing and much bobbing in and out of bushes. That little frog was so fast and also so camouflaged. He blended in so well with the bushes and the mulch that it was hard to find him if you took your eyes off of him at all. Later the same evening, as I came to my back door after dark, there were three fat bright green tree frogs stuck to the wall.  Those fat, bright colored frogs stuck to the wall were not camouflaged at all. You couldn't miss them if you tried. Those frogs stood out with their bright green color and they didn't move at all when I reached out to touch one. They just sat there glued to the wall waiting on their dinner to fly by. Much different from the tiny, fast, khaki frog we had seen earlier in the day.

Nature is so fascinating and can teach us so much. I watch the birds in my yard from the front window and have noticed the small Carolina Chickadees that hang on the pine trees. They are swift and small and blend in with the bark on the trees. But in contrast to that is this one BIG redheaded woodpecker that hammers away at a dead tree we have in the front. His jet black glossy body, snow white band around his neck, and they his bright red head is like a neon sign saying look at me. And if that isn't enough to get our attention then he drills away like an automatic jack hammer and it seems like you can hear him miles away.

There are so many contrasts in nature...everywhere you look if you pay attention. And that is not unlike the family of God. Throughout the Bible there are many people of God that stand out, their personalities big and colorful, their missions bold and conspicuous. And then there are many people in the Bible that are simple and quiet, unassuming and subtle. In nature God created each and every creature just how he wants them to be for a particular purpose...HIS purpose. And he did the same with all his children...God made each and every person to be exactly what he wants them to be.  This is a very important lesson to remember...we are not all the same and not called to the same kind of life, style of life, or purpose in life. God created some of his children to serve big and colorful lives, in the limelight or public eye. Others he created to be more in the background, subtle, unassuming, live quiet lives. And that is wonderful...it is wonderful that we all have our places in life...whether we live in the city, in the country, in a penthouse or a trailer, whether we are single or married, have 15 children or none....God is using us in one way or another. It doesn't matter whether we own a fortune 100 company, or whether we are a stay at home mommy, whether we make the news or can't even afford to buy a newspaper to read the news we are made by God for a special purpose and a special life and we should be seeking out that purpose, praising God, and rejoicing in who God made us.

Ephesians 2:10 "For we are God's handwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."