When Was the Last Time you Toad Someone you Loved Them?

            Did you know that Tennessee has an amphibian monitoring program? It is similar to a deacon monitoring program but with one major difference. Except for a few areas in rural Mississippi, you seldom see deacon legs on a restaurant menu. The volunteers involved in this program are issued tapes of frog sounds to familiarize themselves with the numerous frog and toad vocalizations, particularly in how they call each other.

            Some will use cell phones but most of them squeeze their lungs together with their nostrils and mouth shut. Air flows over their vocal cords, making s shrill or a croak, and the vocal sacs blow up like balloons . . . a process very similar to angry librarians. The article I read was accompanied by a picture of a woman and her dog, sitting in a chair watching for toads – which is what college upperclassmen do during freshman orientation.

            Part of the problem in studying amphibians is in distinguishing between frogs and toads. Both have a tongue attached at the front of the mouth instead of the rear, and covered with a sticky substance which is used to catch insects – sort of like attorneys in New Jersey. By absorbing water through their skin they do not drink, although they have been known to bet on the races . . . uhh, the frogs, not the attorneys.

            Like teenagers, they swallow their food whole. Some species, after eating something poisonous, can actually make their stomach protrude through their mouth and extract the bad food with their right front leg. I  saw a football player do that in my college cafeteria. After witnessing that several of us wanted to. It was not a pretty sight. Contrary to popular belief frogs cannot cause warts. But they can stir up a nasty case of toad jam. Frogs tend to be moist and slimy, like people at the beach; while toads are dry and warty, like people in West Texas.

            It was an interesting study and one that seems to be necessary. The frog population has decreased the last couple of years and the cause could be harmful to humans. They study frogs to find environmental answers. I continue to be amazed in God’s world as I realize the complicated nature of His Creation and how everything in it relates to and affects something else. In His great scheme of things, even frogs and toads matter. Intentional creation.

God’s handiwork is even more evident with humans because we are created in His image. Each of us is loved by God. It does not matter whether we are black or white, rich or poor, frog or toad. We all know people who may be down on themselves with little self-worth. Like Terry “the Toad” in American Graffiti, they need to hear that God loves them and cares for them, warts and all.

People  need to know that we love them. They won’t know unless we tell them. There is an old gospel song that says, “ . . . no one ever cared for me like Jesus.” The love of God . . . one story that must not remain untoad.