Coccinellidae

It’s all a matter of perception. I perceive the same 100 feet to be a much shorter distance during the spring, summer, and fall, than I do in the winter. Why? It is finally warm enough to pull out the 100 foot hose in order to fill up some of our animal’s water tubs. It is so much easier to uncoil the hose, sit while surrounded by the beauty of God’s creation, waiting for the tubs to fill with water. In the winter that same 100 feet encompasses lugging two 2 ½ gallon jugs filled with water, one trip at a time, until those tubs are filled.

So today as I was sitting and filling, I got to be a lifeguard, just like I mentioned in my last post, Baywatch. A little lady bug was floating and peddling for dear life. I reached in, put her in my hand and set her on a nearby post to dry off. It might be small, but I saved a life today. All God’s creatures have value, and she was no exception. So when I was done with my chores, I researched lady bugs, or coccinellidae.

Lady bugs are among the first insects to appear in the spring. They live from one to two years. They “over winter” or hibernate during the winter. They lay over 1000 eggs in a lifetime. They are considered useful insects because they prey on aphids, which are agricultural pests. Their main predators are birds, frogs, wasps, spiders, and dragon flies. Their bright colors can discourage these creatures from making a meal of them, This is called aposematism, which works because predators learn by experience to associate bright colors of certain prey with a bad taste.

In Genesis 2:19-20, God formed out the ground all living creatures. He brought them to Adam to see what he would name them, and whatever Adam called them, that was its name. I find it fascinating that Adam knew Latin, because that’s what the lady bug’s name, coccinellidae is. It is derived the the Latin word meaning scarlet. (Gosh, I find myself too funny! Or at least that is what I perceive!)

I also perceive that if we can shift our focus for at least some part of each day on something from God’s creation, it will bring us to a place of awe and wonder, and give us hope that we will get through this. Because that little lady bug whose life I saved, saved a little of me today by shifting my perception off the negative on to something beautiful.

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