When Grandpa was a boy, which was many years ago, he and his family often travelled to Florida for their vacations. It was a long drive for four active young boys in a car with their parents, but it was well worth it to play on the beach and ride the waves of the Atlantic Ocean.
In those days, there were roadside stands that sold cute baby alligators. When Grandpa was ten, he and his brothers wanted one of those cute little alligators, and their parents decided to let them buy one. They named their new pet “Ali.”
At first Ali was small enough to keep in a box and they enjoyed taking her out of the box when they wanted to play with her. They played with her like you would play with any fun pet, inside or outside the house. But Ali grew.
Soon, she needed a bigger home than a cardboard box. They had a large built-in cement fish tank in the basement of their home, and so now when they weren’t playing with Ali, that is where they put her. Outside there was a big cement fish pond the previous owners of their house had used, about 12 feet long and 4 feet deep. Grandpa’s family didn’t have fish in the pond, but they had plenty of children, and the boys liked to play in this pool. They had fun taking Ali to play in that pool with them. But Ali kept growing.
Eventually, Ali was too big to play with. Somehow the boys knew that. Her teeth were sharp and her mouth was big. Grandpa and his brothers were afraid to pick her up anymore. If they visited her in the basement and she was sleeping, they might prod her with something to get her to wake up. That is what happened one day that finally ended their time with Ali. They poked her with a broom handle. She woke up, alright. She woke up and snapped at that broom handle. She snapped it right in two. “Oooh!” shouted the boys in delighted fright.
But their mother heard the noise, and she came to investigate.
“What was all that noise about?” she asked them.
They told her about the broken broom handle. Of course, she realized a broken broom handle could very well have been a broken finger or worse! She talked to their father, and that was the end of having an alligator as a pet. Thankfully, the nearby zoo was kind enough to take Ali and care for her.
Yes, children, small, cute, dangerous animals grow up to be large, not-so-cute and very dangerous animals. That is how sin is. At first, we may think we can play around with things that our parents or our consciences tell us are not good for us. Some children get into very bad things at a young age. At first, these bad things may seem to give them some happy feelings. But with time, those habits of sin grow bigger and stronger, until they can completely destroy a person’s life. Be wise! Don’t get into things that you know, or your parents tell you, aren’t good for you. The Lord Jesus has a wonderful path for you to take through the world, and He will guide you into that path.
You don’t have to experience the pain which the dangerous sins of this life will give you. But even if you already have gotten hurt by sin, you can trust the Lord Jesus to help you and deliver you from even the most dangerous sins. He is stronger than all the enemies in the world, all the sins that we have done or that others have done to us. “Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:44Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. (1 John 4:4)). If you have sin in your life, don’t be afraid to tell Him about it. He knows about it already, and He can deliver you from it. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:99If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)). His blood is enough to wash away the worst sins there are.
Messages of God’s Love 12/25/2022