Rescuing Toad!

I was spring cleaning this morning and decided that even though my allergies are driving me crazy with all the Oak pollen in the air, I'd open some windows and let the spring air come in. The first window I opened looks out over my neighbors pond and I was met with the sweetest sound I've heard in a while. Frogs croaking! That means they have left their mud burrows for the winter and are looking for love! Croaking frogs to me, mean spring!

Since I have a biology degree and spent more years than I care to admit teaching Biology to middle and high school students, frogs have always been something that interests me. While I've spent my fair share of cutting dead ones open to teach internal anatomy, luckily virtual dissections are taking over, frogs actually tell us a lot about our environment. When you have a lot of frogs, that is a signal that your water quality is very good and there are enough insects and worms and such to support a large number of them. Apparently, we have a great, healthy water system and are blessed with enough food for several species of frogs, lizards and salamanders on this little spread of land!

I went out today to take a sample of pool water and when I opened up the skimmer, a toad was barely staying afloat. He looked very much like he had given up and had moved onto the big toadland in the sky. I try to check our skimmer several times a day and rescue whatever has had the unfortunate experience to fall into the pool. I draw the line on snakes, that is left to the hubby! I have rescued not just frogs and toads, but baby mice, lots of spiders and even a salamander!

When I picked toad up out of the water, I could tell he was still alive but very, very cold. Frogs and toads are what you say in elementary school, cold-blooded. They cannot regulate their own body temperature like we can. So when it's cold outside, if they can't get someplace above freezing, they are toast. They, like other amphibians and such, usually burrow deep into the earth during the winter. This unfortunate guy or gal had fallen into a very deep, very cold pond and it slowed him/her down so much, they were close to death!

I held the toad in my hands to warm him up. He croaked a bit at first to show he didn't like being held but as my body heat began to warm him up he began to actually move back further into my cupped hands to benefit from it. I tried to sit him down a few times in my flower bed but he wouldn't budge! He realized that even though at first it didn't seem like a good idea for a giant to pick him up, I was actually saving his life with my warmth. I did finally get him to sit on a sun soaked log by my flower bed and he now is happily living under the hedge by the deck.

As I watched this take place, it struck me that is how I sometimes do God. I think I can go my own way and do it my way and end up in the deep end of a very cold pool. He scoops me up and holds me in His hands, sheltering and warming me back to health. I don't like it sometimes at first because this means that I actually must admit that I can't do it all but He never puts me down, He just keeps holding me close until I regain my strength. Most often than not, once I'm back to normal again, I jump out of His safety and warmth and hop away, never thanking the God who takes care of me!

Today, I'm thanking my God and Savior who watches and keeps me safe from all the trouble I seem to get into!