An article in Homiletics Magazine discusses the benefits of fighting the malodorous maladies of bad breath and stinky feet (both caused by bacteria) with…well…bacteria.  The article sites recent research which suggests that bacteria eating bacteria can actually be enlisted to consume their smelly relatives.  The Homiletics editors likened it to the words of the famous nursery song, “There was an old lady who swallowed a fly…she swallowed a spider the catch the fly…”  Bugs catching bugs, bacteria curing bacteria.  How ironic, yet how effective.

There is a spiritual correlation, suggests the article, pointing out the irony of God’s cure for our sin, “A Death to cure death.  Our sin and God’s grace in one symbol—the cross!”  How ironic, yet how effective. – Selected