Corn and Gnats

It was a typical early summer afternoon around here today.  The temperature was hot.  Muggy hot.  So muggy and hot that walking outside guaranteed a wet shirt.  And there I was out there with a bushel of fine looking silver queen corn to shuck.  Seeing that corn coming out of the lush green shucks and onto the table was pure pleasure.  Already I had rescued a couple of ears from the boiling pot.  As I was enjoying the sight of perfect ears of corn and the remembrance of a tasty meal, a thousand black gnats descended on each one of my ears.  It seemed they were hunting a landing zone and my ears appeared most inviting. 

 

Anyone who has been around these parts at this time of the year knows about the constant buzzing and the incessant sense of being a landing zone.  Life is like silver queen corn in the hand and annoying black gnats in the ears.  The good and the bad always seem to get mixed up in our life.  Jesus told a parable about the kingdom of heaven to illustrate this life phenomena.  "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field, but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away."  (Matthew 13:24-25)  This blend of good and bad has so permeated life that even the kingdom of heaven is described in such a way as to indicate that it is not perfected on the earth, but simply on its way toward perfection.

I cannot figure out why those pesky gnats have to be a part of the good stuff of life.  My inability to figure it out changes nothing.  They were here today and will be tomorrow.  I just waved at them with hands sticky from the milk of corn and blew as best I could out the corner of my mouth.  Finally, it was an evening breeze off an approaching storm which sent them on their way and brought a season of cool refreshing over me.  Help in dealing with black gnats came from a storm this afternoon.  God sure has strange ways of rescuing us from our troubles.  But, He does.