FOGGY CAME A COURTIN 11/10/08

Good morning! This week we are going to talk about 'fully relying on God'! It would seem we are detouring with the following devotion, but, in all things we should be patient. Eventually, we will get there.....

FROGGY CAME A COURTIN
In my late teens I developed a wart on the middle finger of my right hand. It was just below the pad and just above the first knuckle. I had never had a wart before! In my job I used a standard typewriter. Electrics were out there but were still relatively a new thing. I began to notice this wart, more and more because I would feel it as I typed. I showed it to my friends and they said; "Have it removed"! I asked my Doctor about it during a regular visit and he said he could burn it off. He assured me it would be quick and painless. He stuck a needle into my finger which hurt and then brought out an angry looking instrument, which when applied to the wart, literally burned it off. I could smell my flesh burning. Not a very good thing!
Afterwards, I felt sort of melancholy and so my sister Jean wrote an ode to my wart. Goes like this; "A wart on my finger had I. Alas and alack I would sigh. People started to scoff, so I had it burned off and served it with cheese on Rye". Clever Huh? The core of that wart is still there. You can’t see it, but I can feel it when I run my finger across it.
Toads and frogs are very much alike. They are both small, tailless, amphibious animals which feed on insects. The toad likes the land, whereas the frog likes water. Once while digging a small hole for a plant a toad jumped off the shelf just under the grassy top of my hole. Scared me half to death! This last year I have discovered warts on my face and hands. I asked the Doctor about it and he said sometimes the elderly (me elderly?) get warts. I mentioned it to a friend of mine and she said; "oh yes!" She showed me her hands and arms which were adorned with worts. I have learned to accept the dry spots and wrinkles. I new that age spots were coming, but warts? Warts are a regular occurrence with children, but adults?
My new solution to these warts is to pick them off. I have picked and picked until some of the ones on my face are gone. My hands are blotchy where I have picked some of them off. I probably should accept this new condition but I don’t think I should even have them. I have never in my life played with frogs. The closest I have come to a frog is Norma. She is a bubbly, exuberant lady, full of life. She brought to the Women’s Ministry, at our church, an idea called F.R.O.G. An acronym for "Fully Relying On God"! Pretty cool! She began collecting frogs of all kinds. Figurines, shirts, etc! She proclaims that frogs are a good thing!
I am sure there are many scriptures that bring us to the point of "fully relying on God". I called Norma because I wanted to use the one she used. She said; "my favorite scripture is Galatians 2:20, but I don’t know what that has to do with F.R.O.G.". So I looked into the scriptures and found that In Exodus 8:2 God sent frogs as one of the plagues. In Revelation 16:13 it talks about unclean spirits that look like frogs, coming out of the mouths of three different entities. Looks to me, that frogs were dangerous to some and unclean to others. Let’s look at Norma’s scripture again, because I think this scripture could work for us. It reads as follows; "I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and delivered Himself up for me". If Paul were here today, I think he would agree that what he said many, many years ago could be said like this; "Through Christ and my faith in Him, I can fully rely on Him because He was, and is and will forever be, the "Son of God". I know that the warts we get on our bodies can be a problem. However, they are easily removed! One day, when I stand before Him, warts and all, I want to be able to say; "With Christ at the core of my being, I have stood before imaginary giants and giants of real magnitude, fully relying on God". How about you? Are you F.R.O.G? By: Jane Ann Crenshaw 2/7/08