Bed Bugs

 I visited with a man in the hospital today. He is recovering nicely from his illness, but still grieves the loss of his wife several months ago. They were married 44 years. They were just teenagers when they married. People thought they were crazy kids. Truth is they were crazy in love and remained in love until she died of cancer. Her loss has been difficult for him to get over. 

We visited for a long time. He did most of the talking. I listened. Then he told me a story that I just had to get down for others to read. A story about bed bugs of all things. 

The story starts with him visiting his mother in law in a care facility. She brought something to him on a napkin and asked if he could identify what it was. He identified a bed bug. He went in to investigate her bed closer and sure enough those little creatures were everywhere. 

He told her to wrap a few belongings in a garbage bag and to come stay with him until the property owners could rectify the situation. The man testified God was in those bed bugs. He was so depressed he could not function. Memories of his wife were everywhere in the home. He sat there alone for weeks weeping his eyes out. 

God used the bed bugs to get his mother in law to come stay with him. God used the tiny vessels of beg bugs to send a minister to stay with him in his grief. He needed someone but was not going to ask for help. He knew she was also grieving the loss of her daughter and the loss of her husband six years ago. He believes God orchestrated the beg bugs to get his mother in law to come minister to him in this season. She is still there because the beg bugs are still in her assisted living apartment. 

How much does God care about His children? Enough to send bed bugs? Enough to send fleas? When Corrie ten Boon and her family were arrested by the Nazis and thrown into Jewish concentration camps, the conditions were miserable. It did not take long before her and her sister discovered the barracks they stayed in were infested with fleas. They could not sleep at night from the hundreds of bites and clawed their skin trying to find relief. If their imprisonment was not enough misery, they had to add the madding torment of fleas. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise. 

Because the fleas were so rampant the guards seldom came into their barrack. When they smuggled a Bible inside, it went undiscovered for a long time because the fleas kept the guards away. God comforted those women in torturous conditions with His word, and they were unafraid because they knew the guards feared getting the fleas personally, so they stayed away. 

How much does God care? Is He concerned about the minute details? He is concerned enough about the well being of His children that He will use a bed bug and a flea to accomplish His purposes. Remember that the next time you are inconvenienced. God might just use your inconveniences to show how much He cares.