What’s bugging you?

That old colloquialism has new meaning since the mechanical dragonflies started buzzing. Harvard University admits to bug spy research, and the U.S. government is strongly suspected of also developing this new snoop technology.

A new tiny, flying spy technology can buzz in and out of rooms and dart among crowds transmitting vital information to waiting analysts. This is really a "fly by night" breakthrough that is no flight of fancy, and it gives new dimension to the phrase "just wing it."
Several years ago, these gadgets were proposed as futuristic thinking. Evidently, the future is now.

Recently, some protesters in New York and Washington reported these "insect" gadgets flitting about and buzzing the crowds like Lilliputian aviators.. Hovering, swooping and darting like those skittish summer dragonflies, they looked a bit more mechanical than their living counterparts.

And if that’s not the real stuff of science fiction, word is out that real moths may be implanted with tiny transmitters in the pupae stage. When fully emergent, they could be programmed to fly where human or larger mechanical snoopers find access impossible.
The positive side is that these gadgets or insects could penetrate buildings or inaccessible cavities to aid is rescue operations.

No matter what the truth or how weird the devices, freedom of personal privacy is shrinking dramatically. Electronic eavesdropping can pick cell phone message out of the wireless air. Credit card sale patterns and records can be routinely tracked for commercial analysis. Static listening devices are old stuff now; nearly invisible transmitters can be sprinkled around anywhere, while GPS tracking could locate anyone.

God, however, has prior claim on secrecy probes. Ecclesiastes 10:20 warns, "Do not curse the king even in your thought; Do not curse the rich even in your bedroom; For a bird of the air may carry your voice, And a bird in flight may tell the matter." (Remember Mom saying, "A little birdie told me?")

But there are no secrets with God. "Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You" (Ps 139:12). God asks in Jeremiah 23:24, "Can anyone hide himself in secret places, so I shall not see him? … Do I not fill heaven and earth?..."

A day is coming "…when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel" (Romans 2:16). Christ warned the hypocritical Pharisees, "For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed; nor hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have spoken in dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops" (Luke 12:2-3).

That’s scary! But Christian witness deals with that future issue now since God’s present spiritual probe under Gospel preaching is more effective than any technological dragonfly. "And thus the secrets of his heart are revealed; and so, falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is truly among you" (1 Corinthians 14:25).

God’s full disclosure is a blessing—the vestibule of forgiveness. In knowing all about us, He can forgive every sin. Psalm 139:23-24 invites total soul exploration. "Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there be any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting."

Jesus paid it all! "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more" (Hebrews 8:12).
Believers need fear no stealth spying. In short, our lives are to be an open book.

David Virkler