Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: Let my people go, so that they may serve me. If you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs. The Nile shall swarm with frogs; they shall come up into your palace, into your bedchamber and your bed, into the houses of your officials and of your people,[b] and into your ovens and your kneading bowls. The frogs shall come up on you and on your people and on all your officials....
Exodus 8: 1-4 NRSVue
Swarms of frogs? We don't '"knead" that, do we? Okay, in Canada not a creature is stirring, not even a frog as they're tucked away in hibernation dreamland.
Lest you figure I've lost it (always a possibility), these musings were prompted by an New York Times article and beautifully illustrated documentary about the mysterious decline in frogs. I've seen elswehere that a world-wide study of frogs indicates that of the thousands of species at least 40% are in decline and dozens have become extinct. This is how one of the filmmakers describes what they have found:
...we’ve covered the extinction of species and other ecological issues in our work for years. Mammals, reptiles, insects, fish — much of the planet’s wild fauna is threatened with extinction. But no other vertebrate class is as threatened as amphibians. Herpetologists...don’t just fear for individual species; they fear for the class Amphibia as a whole.
illustration from Frog and Toad
The bible doesn't have a lot to say about frogs, although there is a lot about "living with respect in Creation" (New Creed) and about listening to other creatures who can teach us (Job 12: 7-10). We are told that in the great drama of the Exodus of Egypt that frogs invade as a plague on the Egyptians. It sounds as though we could do with a super-abundance of frogs ourselves.
I'm tremendously grateful that we live in an area where we regularly see and hear frogs as we paddle, often in significant numbers. I'll believe it's actually Spring in 2024 when I hear the Peepers and Chorus frogs. For me this is an annual spiritual reawakening, a frog-on wonder of Creation.
2 comments:
Big frog fan here. I'm always very cautious when mowing the lawn, there's always frogs and toads hopping away to avoid the machine. And I avoid one local road altogether when it's raining - it would be next to impossible to drive a hundred metres without taking some out.
Then again, it's not just frogs I guess. My wife rolls her eyes as I lay out live mousetraps in our garage. I've caught four of them this week, taking them for a little drive in the country before releasing them. We have lots of ospreys and eagles in the area; I'm not sure I did the mice much of a favour, but I figure why kill them if it's not necessary?
I'm pleased that you channel your inner St. Francis of Assisi, Roger, and it doesn't surprise me. I can't comment on creating mouse refugees, but, hey, at least you give them a chance. I see that Lee Valley sells a live insect trap with a nifty sliding door, and while I probably wouldn't go that far, spiders are actually helpful critters.
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