Chiggers

I was watching a video of a couple walking along the sidewalk, having a nice little stroll when I saw the husband reach up and touch the moss hanging from the tree.

Noooooo! I said to myself! I nearly made a similar mistake several years ago.

My husband and I were in Savannah, Georgia and as we walked along the sidewalks (much like the couple in the video), there was moss everywhere on the ground.  Not having seen it before, I bent over to feel it and for some reason, changed my mind and stopped short of touching it.

Later, we were commenting to a local about it and they told me it was a good thing I didn’t touch it because it was probably loaded with chiggers.

What’s a chigger?

Turns out they are larvae, sometimes called red bugs, and they like to bite us.  They are super small, but here’s the gross part:

“The chigger [then] attaches its mouth to the skin and injects saliva. The saliva contains an enzyme that breaks skin cells down to liquid form.”

Ewww!

Their biggest symptom is intense itching.  They really aren’t harmful, but they can make you miserable.  And even though they don’t even carry or transmit disease, I want nothing to do with a “red, wingless, six-legged creature” attaching itself to me!

Just imagine how much fun our weekend away would have been if I had done one stupid thing like pick up some moss!

The thing is, we never know where “danger” might be lurking.  These microscopic little biters might find us if we merely brush against them.  But, if we always live our lives afraid of a potential danger, we are going to be looking over our shoulder all the time.

What we probably should be doing, especially while we are given the opportunity during our Lenten prayer, fasting and almsgiving, is to allow this time of heightened awareness (of the damage of sin) to encourage us to modify any harmful practices we have settled into.

Like chiggers that you might brush up against, sin can have a very adverse, intense impact on our lives.

And now that you know about chiggers, I’m pretty certain you would avoid them at all cost.

Won’t you do that with sin as well?

Janet Cassidy
janetcassidy.blogspot.com
janetcassidy.blubrry.net