Losing My Head
My wife and I home school our children. This can be very interesting most days, especially when we teach science topics at home. I have already had to participate in the dissecting of a cow eyeball. Thanks to our local butcher, Tank’s Meats, we were able to get one of those slippery, gelatinous eye sacks, and explore the wonders of this… well, fairly gross experiment.
Our curriculum also has us studying bugs. We brought a giant bug book home from the library as part of a recent lesson to learn about these magnificent cratures. As we gazed at the colorful, huge, detailed pictures of these… these… bugs, I came to the same conclusion I had in my childhood: Bugs are ugly!
In my opinion, it makes no difference if they have simple dots, colorful patterns, multiple wings, or can spin elaborate webs that rival Michelangelo, bugs are still ugly. I do not like them. I do not to like them, Sam I am, I do not like green eggs and ham, nor green bugs for that matter.
My kids do not share my feelings for the creepy-crawly creatures of our planet. These little entomologists are delighted to find a grasshopper, a cricket, a butterfly, or a moth. They collect the shells of katydids and store cocoons with a leaf collection in a mason jar. They relocate ladybugs and Rollie-Pollie-Oulies (their name for those little gray things that curl into a ball). Their favorites are the stick bugs and the Praying Mantis.
Now to prove my point, let’s take a moment to examine the cruelty of the insect world. Some might think the Praying Mantis is pretty innocent – after all, it does pray, right? Actually, this little carnivorous creature is probably wiping the blood of their last victim off their cute little forepaws. This is a meat eating insect, with the female consuming the male’s head shortly after mating!
Still think this is a pretty innocent bug?
And come to think of it, how smart can they be? You would think the males would catch on. If a few of my buddies came up missing and their wives seemed a little bloated from a recent meal, I would probably review my options.
“What honey? Na… why don’t we just cuddle tonight. You know you always want to cuddle. No really… why are you looking at my head like that? Stop licking your lips! Stop that now, I’m just not in the mood.”
In spite of what Dreamworks and Pixar would have us believe, a bug’s life is not the life for me. When I fell head over heels in love with my wife, I kept my head and my heels – a significant difference. In comparison, I prefer to love and honor my wife and receive the same in return. We share a respect talked about in Ephesians.
Paul is talking about relationships in Ephesians 5:24-25 when he says, “Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.” Some women may have difficulty with this verse and some men may try to hold it over their wives as a perverse rule of submission, which in both cases misrepresents Scripture. This is a comparison verse, teaching us by giving an example of how Jesus Christ loved the church (meaning the people of the church, not a building). If men love and treat their wives as Jesus loves and treats the church (to the point that He gave His life for the church), then our wives are more likely to respond in a similar fashion.
Paul gives another comparison teaching in Ephesians 5:28-30, “In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies… …no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church – for we are members of His body.” I believe this is a vivid instruction for husbands to care for our wives, feeding them not just physically, but also emotionally; caring for them not just as a person, but also providing a spiritual pathway to God for their relationship with Him. I also believe this is a vivid instruction to wives to look for this in their husbands, seeking their support and provisions.
This is not the way of the world. Our society would have us believe our marriage should be different than how God intended. Feminism preaches stronger, self-reliant women; machoism preaches uncaring, grunting, burping, and prideful men seeking one thing in life. These are both fake positions in our relationship, and as these two philosophies escalate in practice, so does the divorce rate.
This reminds me of the Praying Mantis, yet instead of the male losing his life, he is losing his wife. I think it takes a real man to love his wife, and a real woman to let him.
Glenn Sasscer
www.glennsasscer.com
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