Beware the Hickory Caterpillar
Recently a friend told of an encounter with one of these rascals, an encounter that perhaps saved his life. (At the end of this blog I have attached a link where you can find out more about the dangers of the Hickory Caterpillar.) I am not sure where he was, but one of these cute caterpillars got on him he brushed it off, and went about his business and thought nothing of the encounter. A short time later his neck began to really swell up in the area where the caterpillar had been. As the swelling increased so did their concern, and it wasn't long before he and his wife were off to the ER greatly concerned as to what was going on.
He got to the hospital and they began to do tests, and the doctor seemed to be ignoring the swelling on his neck. My friend kept saying to the doctor, "what about this swelling on my neck, what about this swelling on my neck." The doctor finally told him, he wasn't concerned about the swelling it was simply an allergic reaction, but what really concerned him was that he found out my friend had an enlarged heart which had resulted from years of having high blood pressure and it not being treated. The doctor was focusing on the true hidden danger my friend was facing, not the external visible one.
What a great lesson for me as a pastor. Yes external things need to be dealt with it, but often there are much larger issues of the heart we cannot see. So often as God said to Samuel the prophet, man looks at the outside, but God looks at the heart. We tend to judge people by the externals we can see, but the truth is there are a lot of people with good externals, but very bad internals.
Jesus said it this way, Mt 23:27 "You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You’re like manicured grave plots, grass clipped and the flowers bright, but six feet down it’s all rotting bones and worm-eaten flesh.Mt 23:28 People look at you and think you’re saints, but beneath the skin you’re total frauds. (Msg version)
God help us all, to be like that doctor, and though we may recognize an issue in the external, lets focus on the internal. There are a lot of people who live in very nice houses, and yet they are very depraved inside, I don't know about you but that is a lesson in life it seems I have to keep being reminded of. Keep your fire burning!
Here is the link for info on those caterpillars: http://www4.uwm.edu/fieldstation/naturalhistory/bugoftheweek/hickory-tussock-moth.cfm
