Watering the Grapefruit Tree

I was out watering my yard when I saw my poor little grapefruit tree. It's been looking rather puny but we could not figure out why. We knew something was eating it, but we couldn't see what it was. Well, I spied them last night!

(I didn't dare poke them again to get a picture, I found these on Google Images.)


They were three rather yucky looking caterpillars, the ones that look like bird poop. I went in the house and got the kids and a jar. We're always on the lookout for a good show-and-tell item for school. Up close these critters look like snake heads, their skin even looks a little scaly. When we went to put one in the jar, out popped what looked like a forked tongue and out sprayed a stench. Creepy. And smelly. And eatin' my grapefruit. I had to call in backup (Jon, my husband and bird poop caterpillar collecting hero). It was a smelly affair before they were all in the jar. He then sprayed the tree to discourage any more from visiting the grapefruit buffet.

For all their ugly, they actually turn into something beautiful.



The same can be true of us. People may not notice us at first. At first glance we may even be on the bird poop side of the beauty scale. Take a jab at us and you might catch a glimpse of our forked tongue or we might raise a stink. Oh, but just wait. Give us a little time, and the things we need to nourish our souls, and we'll amaze them all with what we'll become.

We were never meant to stay at the bird poop stage. We're only here long enough to get prepared for what is to come. We were created for beauty. We were created to fly.

We'd better all go eat a grapefruit.