Creeping Things
Snakes, slugs, roaches, ticks, and spiders. What do they all have in common other than the fact that I’m not their number-one fan?
God said they were good.
A tick or slug may not be specifically mentioned in Scripture, but here’s what we have.
Genesis 1:24-25 NKJV
Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
The NIV translation calls them “creatures that move along the ground.”
The Message translation refers to them as “bugs.”
Either way, we understand they were created by God and were good. I got stuck when reading through the first chapter of Genesis recently when I came across these verses. I couldn’t get past the thought of a “creeping thing.”
And that’s the thing about Scripture. We can read the same passage one hundred times and STILL something new jumps out at us or hits us a different way. Don’t ever get down on yourself because you don’t see or hear what someone else gets through Scripture. Trust God to guide your time with Him and He will surely point out what He wants for you at just the right time.
Back to today’s Scripture, I found myself thinking - you have GOT to be kidding me. I’ve been way too close to a rattlesnake on a hiking trail, and it wasn’t cool. Their rattle is neat until you are in real-time and really close. Slugs to me, don’t look appealing. Roaches = gross. Ticks create more problems than good in my opinion, especially if you develop the rash. And not all spiders appear kind like the one in Charlotte’s Web.
Hopefully, I’m not out on a limb by myself here.
How and why did God say these creatures were good?
I was reminded that in God’s eyes, we were all created for a specific purpose. In God’s eyes, we were created good. It was when sin entered into the world later on in Genesis, that we gained enmity or hate between ourselves. Once hate and evil entered the world, chaos began.
Fast forward a few pages in Genesis and we read about the flood. Everything on earth was destroyed except for who and what was on the ark. Because of the amount of hate and chaos in the world, God sent a flood to destroy the land. He spoke to His servant Noah and instructed him to build an ark. Noah’s family and two of every kind of living creature entered the ark and remained for about one year until the floodwaters receded.
God gave a promise at the end of the flood in the form of a rainbow. God said that He would never again destroy the whole earth with floodwaters. The rainbow was meant to be a way that God’s people never forgot His promises.
I was intrigued because two of every living creature were gathered. Think about that. It blows my mind. I wonder if they all got along. What did it smell like? How did they all eat?
Apparently the “creeping things” made it on the ark and survived the flood and did what God intended. They were able to multiply and continue for generations on this earth. I am not aware of these particular creepy crawling insects being extinct.
A tick seems like such a nuisance to me. I can’t go in the woods in the summer, or even to my garden in the backyard, without lathering up the bug spray because a small pinpoint tick has made me sick more times than I can count. I’ve walked into one too many spider webs, normally when I am on my way to work. I’ve been the one standing there swatting at something that no one else can see but then I feel like I have pieces of the web all over me and a fear that the spider is somewhere on my person.
God opened my eyes to the good in things, even if I don’t want to see them. To have a positive outlook first, before immediately going to something negative. To seek to understand instead of stirring a pot of disagreement and finger-pointing. God created us in His image, to be the living, breathing hands and feet of Jesus Christ everywhere we go.
I still don’t want any of these “creeping things” as a pet or in my home, but I am trying to be thankful for them as God created them too, with a unique purpose and reason, even if I don’t understand anything about them or why they are here on earth occupying oxygen and space. In God’s eyes, we are all good. I’m trying to take the time this week to see the good in all things, even the insects I may despise. For if God said something was good, He meant it.
