Where Have All the Grasshoppers Gone?

I try to make it worth your while if you take the time to read my blog. So I apologize if this seems a little bit fluffy and self-serving but I just have to ask - is it me, or are grasshoppers dwindling in number?

As a youngster, I was privileged to grow up in the country, on ten acres of wide open space, next to my gram's ten acres of wide open space. Mmmm. Even now I can close my eyes and pretend I'm at the top of our hill, gazing down on our houses and the winding road leading to the sheep farm down the way. If I listen carefully, I can still hear the buzzing and chirping of insects and birds a-plenty. Ahh. Summer in the country - there's nothing like it.

As much as I am a bit Monkish, I am not at all afraid of bugs. On the contrary, my sis and I were guaranteed the best grades on the yearly bug collection required for our science classes. We loved spending a morning collecting all sorts of creepy-crawlies in a mason jar, with holes punched in it for air. Having no luck with dogs, cats or the occasional sheep or chick we tried to raise, we usually had a toad or cricket as a pet. It was kind of gross but fun when you caught a grasshopper and it spit its "tobacco juice" on you, or better yet, on someone else! I always thought of grasshoppers as Jiminy Cricket's Irish counterpart. I don't remember naming any of my little critters, but something like Mick or Ian just seems to fit those bright green little characters. It would always startle us when one of the monster ones would fly up in our faces as we'd walk across the field to see what Gram had for dinner. Yep, grasshoppers were certainly a big part of our country upbringing.

But seriously, when's the last time you saw a grasshopper? Tonight my husband (a definite bug-o-phobe) flicked something off himself as he worked outside and I said it was probably a grasshopper. That got me to thinking. Have I not seen grasshoppers because there are less of them? Or am I not where they abound?

Isn't that how it is with God's blessings? Sometimes I feel like they're dwindling, like I can't see God at work. But usually it's because I'm just not looking for them, or I'm not in a place where he can bless. I didn't mean for this to turn into an spiritual analogy - that just came to me as I pondered my little green buddies. But now I want to go looking for both!