I had two fly swatters for sale hanging up in Buzzy’s Country Store right next to those other fast moving products such as clothes pins and baby bottles. These items were on the shelf when I bought the store from Buzzy four years ago and who knows how long ago before that when he first stocked them.
A camper came in Saturday and bought one of the fly swatters and I smiled that one of them was finally going out the door. Then on Sunday, less than 24 hours later, someone else came in and bought the other one. Two fly swatter sales in two days after sitting on the shelf for literally years.
The second customer informed me that his mother used to refer to a flyswatter as “The Arm of God” because it determined who lived and who died. I laughed as I made the sale; but after he left, I googled it to see if that was a common nickname or reference for a fly swatter that I just had not heard of. I didn’t find anything on it.
However, the more I thought about it, the less I liked the reference. It made me think of my cousin Father John who once gave a homily where he blamed the insurance industry for creating the term “Acts of God” to exclude their coverage of natural disasters. John’s view was that the acts of God were kindness, forgiveness, mercy etc., and not hurricanes and floods. 
Maybe I’m still a little too close to my brother’s death to be thinking about God as some dude wielding around a fly swatter to take folks out. However, the image of Him doing so reminds me of Dot whom I’ve previously discussed click here. I recall asking Dot, who was 87 at the time, what her secret was for living a long life and her answer was “Just keep moving.” Like a fly that won’t land long enough for you to swat it, maybe that’s the secret – keep moving – to avoid “The Arm of God.”
I only know of one song that has God and flies in it but it’s a good one with Bonnie no less: