A Can Of Worms

The Worm Hunter

I can remember it like it was yesterday though I was only six or seven. My grandfather holding a running garden hose as he sprayed a misty fan of water over the lawn and thoroughly saturating the ground as the evening sun was setting.

 Curious I asked, "what are you doing that for grandpa"? He would smile a little smile and say, "if we're going to go fishing tomorrow we will need some bait so I'm getting the ground ready for worm season", then he would chuckle as I scratched my head wondering what he meant. 

After dinner and a nice bowl of ice cream, that he wasn't supposed to have because of his diabetes, he would grab his hat , a coffee can and a couple of flashlight's and would say, "lets go get those worms".

Ready for an adventure into the night & not knowing what to expect, I jumped up eager to see what would happen and blasted through the screen door.... but quickly he would calm me down saying,... "shhh!  quiet! quiet!  "your going to scare all the worms away". Then we would tip toe out to the middle of the lawn in the dark. Once we got to our hunting ground he would turn on the flashlight and do that spooky thing you do when you hold a flashlight under your chin and make scary sounds.  In a whispering voice he would give me instructions on catching worms as he stealthily showed the light across the lawn showing the hundreds of worms that were watering themselves on the freshly saturated ground, then quickly removing the light being careful not to scare them away and kneeling down saying, "you have to get on your hands and knees and then show the light just a little so you can see them like this one wright here" and... BAM! he reached out like a flash and grabbed the biggest night crawler I had ever seen. It was massive, it was so big I thought he might of accidently grabbed a snake then he through the thing at me saying, "quick put that in the coffee can", that by now had been filled with grass clippings. Needless to say with all of the build up of excitement and seeing this massive creature being pulled from the ground then seeing it thrown at me in a mad rush caused me to flip out and loose all control. I jumped at least ten feet or so and my flashlight, grass filled coffee can and hat became separated from my person. He laughed so hard his stomach got sore. I could tell because he grabbed his gut and doubled over being nearly out of breath, then he slowly recovered... chuckling ever so often. I have to admit, now, that it would have been a sight worthy of funniest home videos but at the time I didn't think it was all that funny and I think I even gave him a dirty look but I got over it and soon got back to the hunt.  Finally after showing me how to catch those slimy critters I became pretty good at it but one thing I noticed was how quickly those little worms would dart back into the ground once the full beam of the flashlight would show on them and so you would miss out on that one and have to find another one, then after finding another I got wise and only showed a little of the light, just enough to see it and then ... POW! ... Gotcha! , this is why the early bird catches the worm. Soon we had a full coffee can and were ready to go fishing. Oh! what great memories those are!

Well it would seem that this was a training period in my life for bigger and better things. It's funny how the Lord will use situations like that to show us how to get along in this world and battle the creatures of darkness. Searching out the worms that take away the water of life, the false teachers, that would slime their way in under the cover of darkness feeding on the truth leaving a trail of deception in their wake thus leading many, unwittingly, to their destruction. The scripture in Jude shines the perfect light on this subject.

 Jude 1:4

4 " I say this because some ungodly people have (wormed) their way into your churches, saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives. The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. 5 So I want to remind you, though you already know these things, that Jesus first rescued the nation of Israel from Egypt, but later he destroyed those who did not remain faithful. 6 And I remind you of the angels who did not stay within the limits of authority God gave them but left the place where they belonged. God has kept them securely chained in prisons of darkness, waiting for the great day of judgment. 7 And don’t forget Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns, which were filled with immorality and every kind of sexual perversion. Those cities were destroyed by fire and serve as a warning of the eternal fire of God’s judgment".

Let Us then earnestly contend for the faith & turn to the one who will lead us to righteousness, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life and who is that Great Light that came into the world. Let us be filled with His Spirit and shine forth that same light of truth and send every worm back into the depths from which they came. Expose their lies with the light of truth, that we may bring life & bring all by way of the righteous one who is the image of true love, the one and only G-d of Glory.

If we are to become fishers of men then we need to know how to deal with every sort of rig, lure and bait so join in with me & grab your hat, your can and the light & "lets go get those worms".....

 and above all else LoveEachOther and trust in Yeshua, Jesus.