December 10, 2015 (Thursday)
Movie quiz: Who said, “you little weasel?” Answer: Many people in many movies. It’s a common epithet thrown at thieves, liars, deceivers, cheats, and a host of other unsavory characters.
The key word is, “little.” A weasel can be as small as 6 inches in length. Even though it is small, however, it is ferocious and attacks larger prey, mainly rabbits. Occasionally, it attacks birds. And that particular scenario produces some odd sights, like this one:
It appears that this weasel is hitching a ride on this woodpecker. But in all likelihood, the weasel attacked the bird and grasped the bird as it flew to escape. After the picture was made, the Woodpecker successfully dumped the weasel and flew away.
It’s not weasels, but small foxes, that Solomon described: “Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom” (Song of Solomon 2:15 NIV). The idea behind those thoughts is that the tiny critters can get into places where the larger ones cannot go. The application has been made by many that the small animals are like small sins. They get into where the larger ones are not acceptable. We may think a sin is so small that it does not matter, but it is still sin. Slice it up any way we like, every piece is sin. Our problem is that bigger and more dangerous sins usually follow in the wake of smaller, seemingly insignificant bad deeds.
Let’s be like the Woodpecker in the picture above. Let’s get this thing off our back, so we can get to flying again. Let’s talk to our sins: “Get off my back, you little weasel!”
When our resident bird expert, Dale Pogue, saw this picture, he commented: “That is a Green Woodpecker. Not American. Its range is from Europe to the mountains of N Africa, Turkey, Iran, and Western Russia. It eats insects, spiders, ants, and fruit.It occasionally drops down to check out fallen logs…that could be when the rider jumped on. Its call is a far carrying ‘laugh’. Doubt this one is laughing.”