I Saved a Life Today

More specifically, I saved a frog’s life today.

You’d think he would’ve been a little bit more grateful, but he just sat there and stared at me for the longest time.

I mean, it could’ve been because it took me so long, but in my defense, I thought he’d already croaked.

He was just floating in a cast iron pot and you see them like that a lot around here. It’s hot! Today it was over 94 degrees but I’m not sure exactly how much over. I just know that when it started cooling down it was 94.

Frogs will dig into your potted plants and jump into standing water to cool off. They think they can just jump right back out but sometimes the way the vessel is made prevents that, so it’s a death trap.

I’ve fished their poor little bodies out of the dog’s water bowl I don’t know how many times.

So, when I saw this guy, I didn’t want to just get his body out right away because I had my new little shih tzu puppy out with me and I knew he’d be curious enough about the frog to poke around a bit, and for some reason we already have tons of little bitty frogs hopping all over the place this year for her to chase.

It’s weird.

I don’t remember ever seeing so many frogs in my life.

Sometimes when you open the front door of the house one will hop in with you like he’s coming for a visit. I don’t like them that much. Stay outside you creep. Nobody comes in uninvited.

Anyway, the frog lived but it took a long time for him to shake off the experience and hop away.

I’ve been there.

It must’ve been pretty traumatic for him and I’m sure he saw his life pass before his eyes, knowing he wasn’t going to make it out and no one was going to save him even though I was right there the whole time. Then at the last minute I got him out of there and I felt like he was less than grateful. More like shell-shocked.

Maybe that’s the way it is for us in life at times, with the noted exception of God always knowing when we need help instead of being oblivious to it like I was to the frog.

It’s possible that He waits to show up sometimes so we will learn something from the battle we’re in—like how not to jump into something we can’t get out of by ourselves.

And talk about not having gratitude—what about the way we don’t even acknowledge how it could ONLY be God who gets us out of some of the predicaments we get ourselves into? We just sit there until we shake off the shock of what we’ve been through and then carry on with our lives without a thank you or a backwards glance.

It could even be said we take God and what He does for granted—oh, please let that not be the case! To take for granted the goodness and mercy of God and His deliverance when I have done something so foolish as to cause myself immeasurable grief and misery—let it never be said that I have done that!

But even as I add these words to the screen on the keyboard I drowned in tea right before I started typing, I know I have taken God for granted.

I take Him for granted every time I step foot outside my house and the sun is still set in the sky, the birds are still singing, and I can still breathe the air around me.

I take Him for granted when I stand in the middle of our pea patch with abundance all around and realize that not only will we eat but our neighbors and friends will eat as well, yet it’s not because we planted but because He made it grow.

And I take Him for granted when I publish a book called “if frogs had wings” and there are hundreds of frogs hopping around in my yard.

Somebody up there has a sense of humor.

And thank God these frogs don’t have wings.

I would be traumatized…and not grateful AT ALL!