Is dead bird food on a gravel path called road kill? It’s a dead toad, I think. But I’m calling it a frog, because “dead frog blog” sounds better than “dead toad blog.” Doesn’t it? When Ben took the picture, there was a crow nearby making lots of noise, so we deduced that the crow was trying to have its breakfast when we came along.
Where I live, I never see toads. The only other time I remember seeing a large toad was at a camp about 10 years ago. I don’t know why I used the dead toad as the background graphic. (If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you can see the entire picture.) There was just something about it that hit me. I had seen it alive the night before, sitting quite magnificently on a doormat right in front the outhouse. I poked it a few times with a straw, and it wouldn’t budge. Just blinked. It was totally motionless, but so alive. Ben and I watched it and talked for a while. The only time it moved was when it snapped its mouth open to catch some little insect flying in front of its face. A few hours later, I saw it dead, arm ripped off, chest ripped open. It was being fed on by lots of little insects, the same sort it had been feeding on the night before.
Sometimes I feel my life is pretty useless and meaningless. I am like that toad or the insects it fed on. So is this blog. Doesn’t make that much difference if it’s here or not. Here one day. Gone the next.
The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun? One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever. The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose. The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits. All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us. There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
Ecclesiastes 1:1-11, 12:13-14
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