How to Catch an Armadillo [Brochure]

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About 40 years ago, I made my first visit to my Uncle’s ranch in Texas. It was an interesting trip, but a long one, and I was so glad when somebody said, “There’s Uncle Arthur’s ranch.” It looked pretty much like many other ranches we had passed that day—a collection of buildings and fences in dusty central Texas. But, soon the family was gathered around our car; and how glad we were to get out and stretch ourselves and greet loved ones again!

While we were still standing by the car, I was surprised to see an armadillo quietly walking across the driveway, right in front of us. Where I had lived, I had seen armadillos only in zoos, and I did not remember having ever been so close to one before. When I expressed my surprise, somebody said, “You can catch him if you want to.”

Having never before caught any wild animal that large, much less an armadillo, I wasn’t so sure that I could catch it; and I wasn’t sure that I even wanted to catch it. However, because the others encouraged me to try, I began to run after the armadillo. Then he began to run. He ran and I ran. Finally, he ran into a hole in the ground at the base of a tree, and I thought I had lost him. But, there he stopped, with his tail mostly outside the hole, in plain sight. The armadillo had chosen a hole which was not deep enough to really hide all of him.

I was not sure of what to do next, so I waited until a member of my uncle’s family who had followed me came near and said, “Just grab the end of his tail and pull him out of the hole. Be careful to keep away from his feet.”

So, I took hold of the end of the armadillo’s tail and cautiously lifted the him by his tail and carried him back to where the rest of the family were still standing on the driveway. The armadillo did not struggle. He hung quietly from my hand, head down, while some of us took a little time to examine this interesting and unfamiliar animal. Then I slowly let him down to the driveway, and he ran off.

Not only was I surprised that I had caught an armadillo on my first day in Texas, but I was also surprised at how foolish—how simply stupid—that silly armadillo seemed to be. It seemed to me then, and it has seemed to me since, that if I were an armadillo and were being chased, I would want to run into a deeper hole.

Now I am not saying that you may or should expect to catch an armadillo this way; but I want you to understand how much this armadillo reminds me of so many people we may know very well.

It seems that this armadillo felt safe in the shallow hole which he had chosen. It probably hid me from his sight, but it did not hide him from my sight. How many people are like him! They appear to think that since they can’t see God or don’t see God, then God cannot or does not see them. But they are so wrong—and they will be caught.

The Bible tells us: “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” Proverbs 15:3

God even sees inside us—He even knows our motives: “All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” Hebrews 4:13

And He pays attention to what He sees: “For though thou wash thee with nitre [cleanser], and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity [sin] is marked before me, saith the Lord GOD.” Jeremiah 2:22

But God also looks for something else: “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” Exodus 12:13

“For it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” Leviticus 17:11

“And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7

God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to shed His blood on the cross, to remove your sin from the sight of God, and to make you fit for Him to see and to observe with pleasure forever.

Trust Jesus.