Wayne Weekly “Getting the Bugs Out”
Written by Teddy on October 6, 2015
While taking our two dogs for a walk the other day, my daughter Jill signaled to me to take a look up a tree. We could hardly believe our eyes, some species of Red Headed Woodpecker was hammering at the tree.
Now, we had seen Woodpeckers before, only this was a huge one with a red head with a tuft towering above the crown of his head. Jill and I watched him with rapt attention, until he flew into the thicket. Though no longer in sight, we heard his call…and it had a similar sound to it as the famous laugh of Woody Woodpecker!
Some of you may remember the name Walter Lantz. Mr. Lantz created a number of early cartoon characters including Woody Woodpecker, Andy Panda, and Chilly Willy. Though Walter Lantz created the Woodpecker character in 1940, the artistry for Woody was done by Alex Lovy. Ben Hardaway who storyboarded Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, was assigned to storyboard Woody.
As I watched the bird, I was fascinated by its’ size, its’ flamboyant red head, but was mesmerized by the speed of its head “pecking” crazily at the tree in hopes of discovering a delicious community of bugs. I don’t know how long our feathered friend was jack hammering that tree, but he only stayed a minute before he moved on. All that work, just for a meal of tiny insects.
I am wondering how much high speed pecking we do as Christians? It seems that we can become guilty of spending an inordinate amount of time rapidly pecking at other believer’s lives. Most of us have been in that tree at one time or another. We might peck at a fellow believer until we find some bug in it and turn it into lunch…and sometimes, to our shame, into a church “pass the bug” supper! That’s an easy thing to do if we yield to the natural man’s appetite for sin, when we should be hungering after righteousness.
As we grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus, we stop straining at the gnat, or pecking for the bug. We recognize that we’re all saved by God’s incredible grace. That’s when we look for a “desert” on our fellow believer’s menu. And that’s, as they say…sweet.
“Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” Galatians 6:1-3
