Pastor Mike Nodland

What bugs you? This year, bugs! Growing butternut squash, I fought the squash bugs all Summer. You’re supposed to squash their eggs…but that’s impractical and would take days. I sprayed the adult bugs with dish detergent, but some of them seemed to enjoy it!

While fighting off the squash bugs, thick swarms of corn root bugs began flying into my face, landing all over me as I chased the squash bugs under the leaves of another squash. Then they began getting into the house, climbing up the walls, flying about, and hiding in the shower curtains.

Meanwhile, bugs were attacking our apple trees and chewing the rhubarb plants. Stomping out to the garden in an attempt at one last desperate stand to reclaim the remaining vegetables, I kept stepping on something crunchy. Looking closer, the ground was covered in crickets. Did Pharoah have this much trouble with the plagues of Egypt, I wondered?

Waiting for a windy day seemed the answer. Venturing to the garden once again, I became lunchtime to those “No-See-Um” bugs–a tiny black bug that delights in biting you without mercy! Even “Bugs Bunny,” the local rabbit, started eating my hostas!

Here’s one nasty bug: Eternity! Where will you spend it? Take the bite out of your worries, and trust Jesus today!

Mike Nodland is the pastor for Vining Christian Fellowship Church.