Bible Reading: Psalm 113:4-6; John 1:1-3, 14; Philippians 2:5-8

"Okay, everybody, squat down so you can see," said the forest ranger to the students. Davis and his friend Hudson moved closer to see what the ranger was pointing to. The ranger picked up a piece of bark lying in the dirt, and a bunch of little bugs scrambled to hide. The ranger grabbed one of them, and it rolled up into a tiny ball in his hand.

"This is a pill bug," the ranger said, rolling it around in his hand. "When it gets scared, it rolls into a perfect ball, like an armadillo." He passed the bug around the group. "It's also called a roly poly bug, but it's not really a bug at all. It's a crustacean, like lobsters and crabs and crayfish. It lives in wet places and uses gills to breathe."

"That's so cool," Davis said as he held the bug in his palm.

Hudson turned to the ranger. "How do you know all this?"

"Well, it takes years of studying!" said the ranger with a laugh. He bent down to look under another piece of wood. "You have to look at them closely." He picked up another bug. "They're very small, and they like to hide. You have to get down to their level to interact with them." He put the bug down, and it scurried away.

"Fast little guy," remarked a teacher standing nearby.

"Well, it does have seven pairs of legs!" said the ranger. He directed the students to turn up some logs on their own.

"Wow, that ranger sure knows a lot about bugs!" Hudson said to Davis as they lifted a log to reveal several bugs and critters scuttling in the mud.

"Yeah," said Davis. "It reminds me of something we talked about in church last week."

"You talked about bugs in church?" asked Hudson in surprise.

Davis laughed. "No, about God. Jesus came down from heaven to be on our level. He became one of us so He could save us from sin and give us eternal life. Even though He's so huge and mighty, He cares about us and understands everything we go through."

Hudson smiled thoughtfully as he bent down to take a closer look at the bugs they had found.

–Jonathan Baker