The Silver Lining with the Cloud.

I hate bugs.  I mean I really really hate bugs.  I was aware when we moved from urban Illinois to rural Georgia there would be new and different bugs.  Nonetheless, I was ready to pack our bags and return to Illnois when we walked into our bedroom our third night there and saw the world's largest cockroach sitting on the ceiling.  The sucker was huge.  At least 3 inches long and 1/2 thick.  Tony challenged the creature and won.  After that, I learned that the locals call them Palmetto Bugs which makes them sound less horrible, and that they exist because of woods and water- not because of lacking housekeeping skills.  We came to a truce.  Life continued.

Enter Panama.  I knew there would be mosquitos.  Mosquitos love me.  I am their favorite entree so I was quite concerned about the situation.  You can imagine my glee when I met the first creature of our new home- the lizard.  The mosquito-eating lizard.

Much less repulsive than the cockroach, the lizard (or is it a gecko?) is almost cute.  The kids thought they were so cute that they started naming them.  The names were based on the critters' locations.  So we had Shelfy, Cordy, Doory, Fanny, Wally, and Showery. 

I told the kids that the lizards outside where whiney lizards that get aggitated and bite when they hear whining.  That worked great for a while, and Camilla would remind us that the whiney "wizards" would get them so the kids were completely quiet coming off the elevator.  All was love, joy, peace, and harmony.

Until Tony uttered now famous words, "Uh, Lisa, what's all the black stuff on the walls."  I had no idea what he was talking about.  The big kids are big enough to not color on the walls and the littlest is too little to color anywhere.  "I don't know.  It's probably cheap paint."  Sounded like a reasonable response to me.  "Get up and come here.  This isn't cheap paint."  Coming, dear.  Maybe not so reasonable.

Before I even lifted myself from the chair, he had it figured out.  "Lisa, this is lizard poop!!"  Did he just say lizard poop?  Seriously??  Where is my passport???  He spent the next hour or so diligently wiping down walls and shooing lizards out of the house.  (He's still him so there is no killing of the lizards,)

What's the lesson here?  The deep spirtiual truth??  Well, Leviticus 11:29-30 says 

 ²⁹ “‘Of the animals that move along the ground, these are unclean for you: the weasel, the rat, any kind of great lizard, ³⁰ the gecko, the monitor lizard, the wall lizard, the skink and the chameleon. ³¹ Of all those that move along the ground, these are unclean for you. Whoever touches them when they are dead will be unclean till evening.

I'm not sure that's applicable to our little party here. No one was interested in eating them. Howabout this in Proverbs 30:

²⁷ locusts have no king,
   yet they advance together in ranks;
²⁸ a lizard can be caught with the hand,
   yet it is found in kings’ palaces.

That's better.  Living like a King maybe??? 

My take home: In this life, even with your blessings, you have to deal with a little bit of poop.