Are you like me, in that when I try to remember when something happened, I first think of how old my kids were then, and THAT helps me place the event? (Well...sort of!) The events and situations I'm sharing with you might not be in chronological order, I'm afraid. I can't always remember how old my kids were at a given point!
The first several years in Shell held a wealth of new experiences, challenges and showings of God's Hand on us...before things started on a downward spiral with my health. (But I must add that in the years following the spiral, and even today, we are STILL struck by new experiences, facing new challenges and seeing God's Hand move. There may have been an abrupt upheaval in our life, but NEVER in the faithfulness of our Heavenly Father!)
Our apartment in Shell had an attic that was inhabited...by rats and bats. We could hear them scratching around up there. They were just a part of life, and never bothered us. In fact, once when Debbie was about 4, we were talking about where Jesus was. In Heaven...and I pointed in a general upwards direction; she looked at me doubtfully and said, "You mean...He lives up there with the rats and bats?"
Cockroaches were the bane of all the dwellings in Shell. When I was very pregnant (and overdue) with Debbie, one night I felt a little whish of tiny feet race over me; I squeaked and sat up to brush it away. Germán bolted upright and immediately wanted to know if my labor pains were starting! No...it was just a cockroach.
Every few months we would empty kitchen cabinets and the like, and paint on a liquid cockroach-killer; when it dried, we'd wash everything and put it all away again. The "roach-i-cide" was absorbed by the little pests as they walked over it. Of course, this meant we ended up with dead cockroaches here and there, not a good thing when one has a crawling-but-not-yet-walking baby. When I saw Debbie one day munching tentatively on something, I checked to see what she'd stuck in her mouth. Yeah...it was just a cockroach. (Yuck!)
Spiders were omnipresent, but they were mostly harmless. Right after we moved into the apartment, a small tarantula came to greet us, but we never saw him again. There would be an occasional lizard and different kinds of bugs, but we never had trouble with them, no bites or stings. None of the rats found its way down from the attic, and only one bat ever did. I heard some slapping sounds in the living room one night, louder than the usual noise the nocturnal cockroaches made. I went out and found a bat that apparently had been injured, as he couldn't fly and was just flapping around. I put a basket over him so he couldn't migrate to other rooms...and went back to bed.
God protected all of us in the community from any of His creatures that might have harmed us, even the wildlife outside the apartment. (Yes, like venomous snakes.) Obviously, though, we ourselves also had to be alert and stay out of risky situations (if possible). It's like an illustration of how He protects His children from things that could endanger them spiritually or emotionally. We are surrounded by the "wildlife" of the world, of sin, of ourselves...God, our shield, is there beside us...but here, too, we need to be alert and watchful. We need to always pay attention!
More next time! Be grateful for God's protection...and pay attention! May He bless you.
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