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THE
UNIVERSE AND MINOR DETAILS
by Cathy Messecar
Our family has two favorite “fly” stories, one
experienced by my parents and one by my husband and me. But
neither compares to the plague of flies that swarmed into Egypt
long ago—first, my family’s experiences.
On a trip, my parents stopped overnight in a town whose
local economy was boosted by chicken farmers. After checking
into a motel, they searched for a restaurant. They found a pizza
parlor, but were horrified by the number of houseflies inside,
and thinking dining might be risky said, “It was just too dark
in there to eat pizza.” They finally ordered a take-out supper
from a KFC that had a bug zapper inside! An employee swept up
dead flies the entire time they were paying for their order.
David and I buy alfalfa in Artesia, N. M., home to
mega-dairies, with some herds of Holsteins numbering over 2000.
The town is home to a horde of flies, too. About once a month,
we check into our favorite motel on the same day of the week.
For several months another driver always checked in on the same
day, but he drove a rendering truck, hauling cattle carcasses
convertible style. Thousands of the pests swarmed his truck and
we had to make frantic efforts to get inside our truck without
the winged invaders. I’ll spare you more details, except
one—we don’t leave home without our fly swatter!
Our family’s inconvenient experiences don’t measure
up to the Exodus 8, skin-crawling account of fly invasion. By
God’s mighty hand, judgement was about to be brought on Egypt.
Every citizen must have cringed as “[d]ense swarms of flies
poured into Pharaoh’s palace and into the houses of his
officials, and throughout Egypt the land was ruined by the
flies.” Bug zappers and fly swatters would have been useless.
But God raised an impenetrable barrier around his people as he
had promised. “But on that day I will deal differently with
the land of Goshen, where my people live; no swarms of flies
will be there….”
A detail about the removal of the flies is intriguing.
It’s the contrast. It’s the before and after picture—its
what happened when Moses prayed for the pesky insects to leave.
“And the Lord did what Moses asked: The flies left Pharaoh and
his officials and his people; not a fly remained.” Not one
remained? Wasn’t there one that didn’t get the message to
buzz out of Egypt? No, not one! They all left!
From this story of Israel’s history, several facts
emerge about God. He may engineer circumstances to gain glory
for himself and to make people take notice. He is in tune with
minute details like sparrows falling, ax heads floating, and
ridding places of every single fly. His children often receive
special favor and protection, and he’s not too busy or above
being concerned about the little things in our lives.
The variety in God is appealing. The vast scope of his
knowledge and understanding is magnetic. The same Creator
striped zebras, spotted leopards, plumed parrots and redeemed
man. And minute by minute we receive his personal care—God of
the universe and minor details.
Cathy is guest columnist for the Houston Courier, and will be featured for five consecutive weeks, on their religion pages on Fridays. She writes a column for her church entitled "Nest Near His Altar" from
Psalm 84 verses 3,4.
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