Deceived!

I've been deceived! Yes, I admit it, I've been deceived … by a little wooly caterpillar. If you are a regular reader, you might recall that in my blog of December 21 I said the following. "I used to enjoy the recently deceased columnist from the Lancaster Newspapers who annually would give his winter predictions based on observing the wooly caterpillar. And his predictions were as accurate as the professional forecasters, although that isn't saying very much. Well this year I've seen exactly one wooly caterpillar and he had a black neck and the remainder of his body was brown. So my interpretation is that this means we will have a stormy beginning to the winter, and we have, and then the rest of the winter will be mild. And on that I am counting! I'm dreaming of a … mild winter!" But was he correct? No! And I thought I could trust that caterpillar. He seemed to be as reliable as the weather men and ladies. And certainly he is as least as good as a ground hog. And until this weekend he appeared to have given me correct information. We had a record snowstorm and cold weather in December. Then January was milder and we had very little bad weather. Then came February! Today we had about 24 inches of snow in Millersville. According to the caterpillar, that shouldn't have happened. And to make it worse this is only the fourth time in 80 years of record keeping that we have had two major snowstorms (over 12 inches) in the same year. So this was a very rare event. Fortunately, it wasn't a blizzard, which requires sustained winds of 35 mph, or we might be housebound for days. So I was deceived – unless maybe the caterpillar I saw was wearing a Halloween costume because it was late in October when I saw him. Well I hope he didn't deceive himself and that he is keeping very warm somewhere. I guess it is really easy to be deceived if you aren't alert. The Bible has many warnings that Satan would like to deceive us – he walks around like a roaring lion – not as a caterpillar – seeking whom he may devour. The Scriptures also warn us, "Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Today many folks are being deceived by false promises, false religions, and secular (politically correct) beliefs. And those deceptions are much more serious than a caterpillar's stripes and a snowy day. Keep warm and stay away from caterpillars.