I have an ant problem. Generally i don’t classify any living thing as much of a problem and i do just hate to kill things. I usually size them up and decided whether they can bite and whether it comes down to my life or its life. Well, in this case they were little sugar ants and it wasn’t quite life or death, but they were going after my Texas clover honey….ok, y’all, pause for a minute with me because i have to explain something before continuing. this is NOT just any honey. This is clover honey from bees that my dad harvested honey from when i was a little girl. Nothing tastes quite like it and the farm that you can buy it from is not online. You have to go down six different county roads and stumble upon their family feed store to buy an $8, 2lb jar. And it is just divine. Perfection. Nectar straight from the Texas gods. 🙂 Can you all tell yet that i have a passion for food? It might actually be more of some sort of diagnosable obsessive disorder, but i’m calling it a passion. like a finely tuned savant-like skill. At any rate, these sugar ants were going after ma’ honey pot and it quickly elevated the situation to life or death. Here’s the thing…I didn’t know, though, at first that they were going after ma’ honey. So when my very responsible and conscientious roommate put out the taro for them at their appearance in the kitchen, I was pretty much indifferent. I was contenting myself with spraying them with Windex. it just knocks them out. Then i can wipe them up WHILE cleaning the counter top! I actually thought this was kinda brilliant. But then my girlfriends gave me that look…you know the one that only your really best, nearest and dearest girlfriends can give you?? its the “i love you, but you are an idiot” look. I think spouses eventually master this look over time too. Being the avid lover of all things living coupled with a moderate level of irresponsibility, i was unfamiliar with the Black Magic of ‘taro’. Roommie had to ‘splain it to me. R: “The ants take the taro back to their nest. and then they die in the walls”. Me: “gross”.
Anyhow, that was until last night, when i was making dinner. People, let me just tell y’all. there is simply nothing in the world better than Hawaiian sweet rolls dipped in melted butter mixed with Texas honey. That’s when the unthinkable happened. I poured that molasses-colored, sticky, sweet goodness in a bowl and popped it in the microwave. When i took it out and stirred it up, could not understand how in tarnation dried spices had gotten into the bowl. Until it hit me. Those cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, fore-fleshing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, hopeless, heartless, fat, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey poo ants were into my honey. And they were into it good. After recovering from my brief but very real horror that i hat just fried a couple dozen ants with highly concentrated radiation, It was on. taro everywhere!!! i want taro on every open counter square footage possible. the counter was suddenly transformed in my mind into prime, valuable real estate.
There is an actually point to all of this, i swear it. today i was having a chat with one of my nearest and dearest. we were talking about temptation and choices and what is good. you know–normal, light friday chat. 😛 I was trying to encourage her that God has such good things for her if she continues to choose what He offers above what satan holds out as good. I reminded her of what she already knew: satan comes to steal and to kill and to destroy, but God sent Jesus so that we could have life and have it to the fullest. And that’s when it hit me.
Ins’t that just the way things are? We have options. Every day we have options, from the mundane to the monumental. but when it comes to choosing to believe God at His word (that’s faith) and ordering your life according to that knowledge (that’s living by faith), we choose life. someone once told me that for every good thing of God, satan has a counterfeit: love and lust. satisfaction and gluttony. beauty and vanity. and the list goes on. but the difference in each is that satan’s option leads to death. it looks good to eat. it might even smell good and taste good. but it is death. sound at all like a very familiar story from genesis? satan plays the same game throughout the centuries he’s just gotten really good at packaging. we put out the taro hoping to attract the ants and lure them into death not even realizing that the honey was available as a better option. smart little things they are. the ants chose the honey. hmmmm…what is in my life right now that is honey? what is taro? oh Holy Spirit, please teach this girl the difference!!
Outpouring Trickle 