Leech-Proof

These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life.  Deuteronomy 6:1-2 (NIV)

Glen and I were out on the water recovering from a very full weekend.

Because of the high water levels this summer, it’s been fun exploring places that are usually out of bounds to our red canoe. Sunday we found ourselves traveling further and further into what would have been an impassable bog.

We also found ourselves surrounded by leeches.

It was the perfect set-up for a really scary movie: Glen and I were engaged in our never-ending photo competition.  When I leaned over the side of the canoe to get a good shot of a lily pad, I noticed what looked like a cross between a flounder and an eel swimming just below the surface of the water.  (A very small flounder/eel hybrid.  But still.)  It was a leech.  Up close. BIG (for a leech).

Then Glen saw one, and I another.  Suddenly we realized that they were EVERYWHERE! We saw them glide up and over the surface of lily pads.  Actually, I think what they did was slide across the surface by biting it with their FANGS and pulling themselves across!  When they noticed us (they DID notice us), they slid off and hid.  They had some sort of intelligence.  I mentioned it was the perfect set-up for a really scary movie, right?  

We were so glad for our fiberglass canoe!  They did check it out, but couldn’t get their blood-sucking, leechy fangs into it, so they just swam around and under it…  Like sharks.  Waiting.

A friend of mine told me she once saw leeches that had been resting in the shallow water near a beach take OFF after a golden retriever that jumped into the water to fetch a stick!

Like our red fiberglass canoe, God’s Word creates a protective shield around us.  It keeps what’s good and true afloat and safe, and keeps the bad things OUT.  The leeches are waiting for us to forget, step outside God’s Word, and take a dip, but God is so gracious that He will burn them off of us if we do.

Beverly

P.S.  If you look carefully, you will see a leech on the lily pad in the photo.