Psalm 34:4 - I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.
This past week, leading up to Earth Day, there was a story on the news about how the bat population is decreasing around the world as humanity takes over their home environment. Pavement and concrete encroaches on forest and field, and bats have no place to feed. Initially, you might think to yourself, why is that a worry, bats are kinda creepy, Halloween visions, horror movies, and the lot. But reality is that the bat gets a bad rap and actually does humanity a great service by keeping the insect population down. And in Minnesota, with our mosquito swarms waiting to give my daughter huge welts every summer (especially after a warm Winter and wet Spring)…bats are really our friends. Perhaps, God gave us bats for that reason, as protection against the mosquito?
I grew up being afraid of bats, believing (from watching scary movies) that all bats always turned into vampires at night—and, well, vampires did awful things, and meant certain death. The boys in my neighborhood would tease my group of friends, I want to suck your blood, they’d say while showing their “fangs” of grins missing front teeth. Then they’d run away with arms spread wide like bat wings. On PBS’ Sesame Street, Count Dracula (even though he taught me about numbers), was still a vampire, and a bat. Later, when I learned about Batman, a hero whose alternative persona was that of a bat, I realized that my feared winged mammal could be for thought of as good, not evil. But, the gut fear still lingered.
A few years ago, a friend wrote an essay about how she tried to get a bat out of her cabin loft in the middle of the night. The story included all her childhood fears and grownup bravery, vampires and bat-women. In the end, after jumping and hiding, ducking and screaming, she was able to open a window and shoo it outside with a broom. When she read the essay at a writing retreat, we were all on the edge of our seats, squealing and covering our faces as if we were there in the experience with her. The power of words and recollection to involve the listener. Our hearts beat fast as we each revealed our own bat “experiences’. Mine was the most uneventful. I shared, “When I was five, my friend down the street had a tree full of bats, so I NEVER slept over at her house,” and then, “Now, our 1925 year-old house has a bat house 30 feet up high on the pine tree near our front walk. I wonder if anyone lives in there.” I didn’t reveal that (occasionally) I wished I’d witness a bat crawl out (not at night) and wondered how it’s body could fit through the tiny hole. I longed to not be afraid of something I’d been taught to be afraid of for so long.
I’m not alone. I’m sure many of you have various opinions on bats—both fears and friendly stories. Bats in caves, flying above heads in the reveal of a flashlight, or curled up and hanging like pea pods on branches in the dark underground cages of the zoo. When I brought my kids to the Minnesota Zoo, years ago, I realized that these slightly fuzzy creatures with big black eyes were “kinda cute” when they’d stretch and curl their wings back around themselves. I don’t think I’d ever want to touch one, who knows, but I put on my brave face in front of my kids. A no “bat-fear” expression.
I think of all the other fears I’ve grown up with, like swallowing a spider while I sleep (a friend shared a horror story of this) or other fears that I learned from movies, reading, teasing friends, “fake news”, or even silly rumors. I think of how many fears that still feed my anxieties—fears of past experiences repeating: my daughter not waking from heart surgery (as a baby) still keeps me sometimes hovering over her (now an adult) at night checking for her breathing. I wonder about the many “justified fears” about real concerns in what can seem like a dangerous world with so many people carrying guns into malls, attacking women in their homes, or drunk drivers T-boning loved ones on St. Patrick’s Day. But, how most of my little “bat fears”, that I’ve gathered throughout life, are really just misunderstandings, misinformation—like not realizing that bats are to be thanked.They are the heroes (like Batman) that eat the mosquitos who really do “suck the blood” from my daughter into welts each summer. Yet, my broad collection of fear stems from forgetting that, in all situations, I am not alone in God’s creation.
Proverbs 29:25 - The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.
Yes, this world can be a very scary place, and bad things do happen. But Jesus teaches us about how to disperse our anxieties and fears, by trusting God. So, I guess I should not focus on the boys teasing me in childhood, or that once my daughter faced certain death, or any of the other things that plague my sanity each day: viruses, impending loss of loved ones, that a world seemingly heading toward another world war, or that humanity is forever changing the earth into self-destruction. I should remember that my daughter survived another twenty-nine years; everyday of breath is a true miracle; that bats are actually harmless when they curl up in their bat houses and are heroes hunting the dreaded mosquito in my backyard at night. I must remember, and be grateful, for God’s creation of natural checks and balances, so the world can flourish and heal: between bat and mosquito, or man’s progression and nature’s survival. That in the end, God’s glory rules over all, because true death was conquered on the cross once and for all. That even when our humanity gets in the way of this balance, both in the external world (the concrete war with the trees) and our internal world (faith battles with fear), whoever trusts in the Lord is safe. We can seek, we can trust, and the Lord will deliver us from all fear.
Amen.
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