The Grasshopper
By Andrea Tadpole-Broussard
I wrote this on 8/17/19
Today I hurriedly got in the car to go get my nails done. I jumped in and took off real fast. Just as I rounded the corner out of my neighborhood I noticed there was a grasshopper sitting on the outside of my windshield. I did not want to turn on my windshield wipers and kill him. I figured he would get blown away or jump soon. As I was driving, I started thinking about how much my granddaughter Destiny hates grasshoppers. They scare her because they jump so high and fast.
I realized that grasshoppers have been all around me this summer and it was obvious that this one wanted to hitch a ride. I was heading to the other side of town from where I lived to an area called Jenks, it is much nicer than my neighborhood. By now I was on the highway several miles away from home. The grasshopper was still there hanging on for dear life to the windshield wiper. As the wind picked up he moved behind the wiper where he was shielded from the wind.
I started thinking about how God always uses even the smallest animal to teach me things and here was this tiny grasshopper on this journey with me. It was no coincidence. It occurred to me that wherever this grasshopper decided to finally jump off at would be a whole new world for him. He was going from the ghetto that I lived in to a much better place.
I thought about what a windshield does. It actually shields me from the wind. I started laughing and thinking about all the different sermons I have listened to lately. They have been about God's love and how He grants us favor and shields us during life’s storms. They have spoken of how His mercies are never-ending and how He moves swiftly to elevate us to higher levels.
Then I thought, I am just like this grasshopper. I live in the ghetto, I have all these true needs and troubles on my mind. So, not too long ago I decided to jump on God’s car and hitch a ride. So, here I am now on His windshield hanging on for dear life because my world is crazy right now. I have managed to get behind the wiper, to His hiding place where I am shielded from the wind. I am careening through space at what feels like warp speed on God’s highway. I do not know where I am going but it has to be better than where I have been.
My favorite story in the Bible is Doubting Thomas because that is who I am. I do not understand what I call the “name it claim it, nab it blab it” churches that say you must have enough faith to get something. I do EVERYTHING afraid most of the time. I just keep getting up every day and asking God if He is real and He lets me poke His side and see the nail scars in His hands. Then, just like the grasshopper, I jump on His windshield for another day and hitch a ride. So far He has never let me fly off and I always eventually end up in a better place.
Thank you tiny grasshopper for letting God use you to teach me something today. Hope where you hopped off was Heaven to you!
