What a Mushroom Taught Me About Spiritual Wisdom
For years, I have talked with my six-year-old granddaughter about angels. I’ve told her how they are always with us, walking beside her at school, protecting her, and watching over her as she sleeps at night.
Like many grandparents, I regularly pray for wisdom and guidance. Teaching a young, growing mind how to grasp deep spiritual truths is no small task.
Recently, her dad told me she had been asking him about these unseen guardians. “You can’t see them,” she told him firmly. Then, after a thoughtful pause, she added, “I think they must live in the clouds.”
A Quiet Afternoon in the Garden
A few days ago, she came to visit me. We were sitting together out in the yard, enjoying a quiet moment near our favorite blue and yellow bench.
She was bubbles of excitement, explaining that her class was preparing for a field trip to a mushroom farm. They were studying different fungi so they could learn how to identify them safely in the wild.
Then, she dropped a phrase that completely caught me off guard.
“We are learning about the destroying angel,” she said, her wide eyes serious. She went on to explain that it was a deadly, poisonous mushroom.
The Biblical Echo: The Messenger of Judgment
I was stunned. I had never heard of a fungus called a “destroying angel.”
As she talked about her school science lesson, my mind immediately raced to a completely different context. In the Bible, a destroying angel is a specific heavenly messenger sent to execute God’s ultimate justice and reckoning upon the earth.
Scripture speaks of this profound spiritual reality in a few places:
- The First Passover: In Exodus 12:23, the Lord passes through Egypt to strike down wickedness, and Moses warns the families to stay protected by the blood on their doors so that He “will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you down.”
- The Guarded City: In 1 Chronicles 21:15, we read how “God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it,” a visual so terrifying that King David saw the messenger standing between earth and heaven with a drawn sword.
- The Gathering of Plagues: Psalm 78:49 describes a historical moment where God unleashed His righteous anger through a literal “band of destroying angels.”
In theology, these messengers are not malicious demons—they are holy, pristine servants of divine truth, operating in perfect purity to carry out an absolute boundary between what is righteous and what is compromise.
Yet here it was in nature: a beautiful, pure white mushroom that looks deceptively innocent but carries a lethal, hidden toxicity if consumed.
A Teaching Moment for Us Both
It was an incredible, humbling moment of alignment. I had prayed for the wisdom to teach her about spiritual realities, and she brought a profound lesson right to my garden bench.
Children remind us that the spiritual world and the physical world are constantly echoing one another. In life, just like in foraging, we have to learn discernment:
- The Invisible Good: The true protectors are often unseen, quiet, and found in the most unexpected places.
- The Deceptive Danger: Some things that look beautiful, pure, or “angelic” on the surface can actually hold great danger if we don’t know how to truly identify them.
My granddaughter thinks the good angels are hiding in the clouds. But that afternoon, I realized they are also right there in the classroom, giving a little girl the exact words to teach her grandparent a beautiful lesson on faith, judgment, and awareness.
What a beautiful story, Sara, on how God orchestrated everything so your granddaughter could “teach her grandparent a beautiful lesson on faith, judgment, and awareness.”; and how God answered your prayers for “wisdom and guidance”.
I appreciate the way you tell your story so that we can see and understand the functions and differing ministries of angels. Not just how you have explained their function to your granddaughter, but how… “they are holy, pristine servants of divine truth, operating in perfect purity to carry out an absolute boundary between what is righteous and what is compromise.”
Your scripture, Sara about The Guarded City: In 1 Chronicles 21:15 was a helpful explanation about the “destroying angel”. I read the entire chapter to understand more about these angels and about the nature of God Himself and His boundaries.
Two scriptures seem to go along with Chronicles.
The first are words by wise King Solomen which say, “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” Ecclesiastes 12: 13
And from David’s own words, “Fear of the LORD is the foundation of true wisdom. All who obey his commandments will grow in wisdom. Praise him forever!” Psalm 111:10
Debi, you end your comment with. “And from David’s own words, “Fear of the LORD is the foundation of true wisdom. All who obey his commandments will grow in wisdom. Praise him forever!” Psalm 111:10
Fear of the Lord is foundation of wisdom…why fear and how does fear work as you go to school and teach your HS students? How do you live wisdom before them? How do your make sure it’s in your words and actions at all times? After we get our foundation right so wisdom will grow what would be the seeds and plants known as “Obey His Commands” So my wisdom and the wisdom of children we teach will grow. Like don’t eat the mushroom known as “destroying angel” is might seriously harm you. Don’t disobey God’s commands! What are his commandments to guide the learner.
Sara, you have asked me several questions which I will try to answer with some thoughts.
“Fear of the Lord is foundation of wisdom…why fear and how does fear work as you go to school and teach your HS students?”
I think I understand some of the seriousness and responsibility before the Lord in being a teacher. I often think of this scripture from James 3:1: “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” As I drive in each day to school, I pray Psalm 19:14: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD…“; and pray for the students, their safety and that they learn. I think fear of the Lord may also work by helping to model and provide opportunities and guidelines for students to develop good character and workplace skills; work together; value one another’s unique skills and lives and input. To understand that there is a Creator God as we work with plants, nature, and living things.
“How do you live wisdom before them?”
One way, I think is by desiring to allow the life of Christ to live in and rule in what I say and do…to show kindness, concern, helpfulness, patience, encouragement, love, etc. … I am deeply aware of my constant dependency on God for this.
“How do your make sure it’s in your words and actions at all times?”
That’s a tough one as most days I feel I fall short of the ‘all’. Reading and participating on The Daily Lily often provides the plumbline and help I need to see where I have fallen short, to repent, learn and then press on in application.
“After we get our foundation right so wisdom will grow what would be the seeds and plants known as “Obey His Commands” So my wisdom and the wisdom of children we teach will grow. “
Maybe these would be the character and virtue traits Jesus taught about…truth, honesty, humility, gentleness, self-control, love, etc. And Jesus did say, “If you love me, obey my commandments.” John 14:15. Sowing seeds to show others the love of Christ for them and that they may know and love Him.
Jesus taught telling stories about many things among them planting seeds. One of his stories is found in Luke 8. Jesus even explained his story so it might be a bit easier to understand for teachers and students alike. Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
—Luke 8:11 (NRSVUE)
“Yet here it was in nature: a beautiful, pure white mushroom that looks deceptively innocent but carries a lethal, hidden toxicity if consumed.” After reading this blog, I had to quote the part of the blog that brought a Scripture to my mind…… (NLT) Matthew 7:15 “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep, but are really vicious wolves.”
The footnotes for this verse in the book of Matthew says: “False prophets were common in Old Testament times. They prophesied only what the king and the people wanted to hear, claiming it was God‘s message. Jesus indicates that false prophets were just as prevalent in his time. False teachers are just as common today. Jesus says to beware of those whose words sound religious, but who are motivated by money, fame, or power. You can tell who they are because in their teaching, they minimize Christ and glorify themselves.”
Tammy’s footnotes have delivered an ominous warning of being aware of false teachers that feed us “destroying mushroom” false teaching— toxics to destroy us while gaining fame, wealth and power for themselves. Our learning of destroying mushroom warning not to eat them for it may be deadly. I’m a bit preplexed as to why many Christian’s failed to accept God’s warnings about false prophets and teachers. Even participate with them in their personal lives, family, church, community and nation! Why one might ask!
“Tammy’s footnotes have delivered an ominous warning of being aware of false teachers that feed us “destroying mushroom” false teaching— toxics to destroy us while gaining fame, wealth and power for themselves. Our learning of destroying mushroom warning not to eat them for it may be deadly. I’m a bit preplexed as to why many Christian’s failed to accept God’s warnings about false prophets and teachers. Even participate with them in their personal lives, family, church, community and nation! Why one might ask!”
I listened to a reel Sara shared this am where the lady shared scriptures from 2 Timothy 3:1-5 that answered the “Why one might ask!”
“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.”