Ladybirds & Dragons

I wrote about St Helen’s Church at West Keal, Lincolnshire, last autumn. It was a blazing hot day and its external walls and grounds were covered in little red dots. These were ladybirds which must have been blown over in some wind, because their excessive numbers were not normal or natural. In the car on the journey home, I removed a half dozen from my person, carefully evacuating them through the window. As a gardener who despises aphids and loves these little beetles, I did not wish to offer them harm. Although their mass migration made an ancient church the more interesting, they likely offered great terror to the greenfly community, if it was capable of thought. To humans, they offered little threat.

Within the church were carvings of demons and dinosaurs, creatures of which medieval man was particularly afraid. Giant lizards must have been terrifying to behold, and fallen angels, though disembodied, offer acute menace and deception which would harm and destroy. Should we be afraid of such things?

The greenfly fears the ladybird, the superstitious man fears the demon, the remote man fears to wild animal. The wise man, however, has little fear left for these, for He reserves it for One considerably greater and more terrifying, and yet from whom comes strength and peace:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Proverbs 9:1

When one fears God, there is none left for anything else. 

A. D.