The Divine Worm-eater

My mom loves to feed the birds. Every year for Christmas or Mother's Day or her birthday, she asks for bird seed. Her kids laugh, but humor her and pick up a bird-related product.

When I passed the bird seed aisle at the store, I threw two bird seed bells into my cart to add to my mom's Christmas presents. I noticed moths swarming all around the bird seed in the store. Something was obviously very wrong with this picture, but since I was tired of shopping, I never stopped to ponder the source of the moths, and I proceeded with my purchase. First mistake.

Tucking the bird seed bells away behind the books on my bookshelf to keep them hidden until Christmas, I left them sitting there for two months, unattended to. Second mistake.

Throughout the month of December, I noticed moths appearing in our home. I thought that was odd since all flying critters should have died with the first frost, but since our home is tucked away in the woods, again I didn't think too much about it. Third mistake.

Finally, I took the bird bells out of my closet to wrap for my mom the day before Christmas Eve. Crawling all over the bag, the bird seed, my bookshelf, and my books was moth larvae (a.k.a.: worms). My mom, having raised four boys and being given presents much more slimy and slithery than my moth larvae, graciously and joyously accepted my present and put the bird seed bells outside. For the birds, the worms were an added delicacy.

I wanted to tell that story because I find it entertaining, :) but also because it reminds me of sin. :( Many times, the negative effect of our sin surrounds us. There are signs, just like the moths appearing wherever the bird bells were sitting. But we ignore them or dismiss them or tell ourselves we will come back and root it out of our lives later. "Later" either never comes, or when it does, it has snowballed into a much larger problem that is more difficult to eradicate.

But just like my story has a happy ending (the worms in my room were destroyed and the birds had a tasty treat), so the story of our lives can have a happy ending. Christ took the curse of sin upon Himself--a divine Worm-eater--so that we might find life in Him. We do not need to wallow in the putrid nature of our depravity. The price has been paid; the debt has been canceled. Christ creates beauty out of ashes and brings life out of death.

As we head into a new year, let's allow our greatest celebration and source for our rejoicing be the new life that we have in Christ, who destorys the worms in our lives!