Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Robert Howson
Tuesday, June 25, 2024
Science has identified and described approximately 120,000 species of flies, and no, Bubba, they don’t all live on your back forty. Flies carry a reputation that makes them repugnant to many of us, and the following will probably do little to improve that opinion. The ensuing are facts applicable to flesh flies in general, which also include the Red-eyed Flesh Fly shown here.
Just for starters, their name is a turn-off. Now for the rest of the list:
–unlike most other flies, flesh flies deposit hatched maggots, not eggs, on carrion, dung, or other decaying material, or open wounds of mammals
–juveniles are laid on these substances for they need protein to develop
–they can carry leprosy bacilli
–forensic investigators use the maturation of flesh fly larvae in a corpse to aid in determining the time of death
–adults don’t bite humans, but may infest wounds.
Not exactly a pretty picture; exact enough, but not pretty. But compare this description to the one offered by William Shakespeare concerning mankind’s fate before the gods:
As flies to wanton boys are we to th’ gods,
They kill us for their sport. King Lear Act 4
Another dismal picture, comparing the gods to uncaring humanity, and humanity in turn subject to the random cruelty of the gods.
No wonder Christ felt it necessary to come, not only to save us from ourselves, but also to show us an accurate picture of what a loving Father we have, not distant and uncaring, but One infinitely involved in our well-being. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:17 NIV)