Plague of Locusts

My children often request to have me tell them stories. Not read them books. Yes, they do request that quite often. But what they like the best is when I recite those familiar stories to them from memory. Goldilocks and the Three Bears is a frequent one we tell. The Three Little Pigs is another one they love to hear. On Wednesday, James begged me to tell him about Moses again. (We had read about Moses during devotions the previous night, so it was fresh in his mind.)

We sat down on the couch and I told him about Moses. I started at his birth and continued until He led the Israelites out of Egypt and into the wilderness. I covered the plagues. How after the hail that destroyed their food crop, God sent locusts to devour whatever food remained. Then I had to explain locusts. Well, here in Southwest Florida, we have these enormous 3" Lubber Grasshoppers that are bright orange. They really are beautiful...as much as an insect can be, at least. I explained that the locusts are similar to these grasshoppers, which he knows eat everything in sight and have no predators. James got the point...those locusts were not a good thing!

Later that evening we went outside to water our garden and trees. When I got to the yellow pot that holds a blueberry plant and began watering, I noticed the sihlouettes of many creepy crawlies climbing up the opposite side of the pot. When I walked around to check it out, I noticed a parade of baby Lubber Grasshoppers making their way up out of the grass.

This is only about a third of them. The kids were having fun poking them to make them hop.

 I'm sure you can imagine the expression on James' face when I called him over and showed him! He went from his "Oh, neat!" face to his, "Wait, what are those?" face and then to his, "Uh-Oh! Not good!" face. Too cute! By the time I got my camera, the kids had scared most of them away...but I did manage to snap a few shots before they were all gone..

It was so neat to be able to see them as babies. They start out so very tiny, and grow up to be the largest grasshopper I have ever seen!