When I was a boy, I made my first visit to my uncle’s ranch in Texas. It was an interesting car trip, but a long one. I was so glad when somebody finally said, “There’s Uncle Arthur’s ranch!”
It looked pretty much like many other ranches we had passed that day—-a group 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 we 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, my uncle said, “You can catch him if you want to, John.”
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 so 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, then he stopped, with his tail mostly outside the hole and in plain sight. The armadillo had chosen a hole which was not deep enough to really hide all of him.
So, I took hold of the end of the armadillo’s tail and carefully lifted him up by his tail. I 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 carefully looked him over. Then I slowly let him down on the driveway, and he ran off in a hurry.
Not only was I surprised that I had caught an armadillo on my first day in Texas, but I was also surprised at how dumb that silly armadillo seemed to be. It seemed to me then, and it has seemed to me ever since, that if I were an armadillo and was 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 that he had chosen. It probably hid me from his sight, but that did not hide him from my sight. How many people are like him! They seem 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!
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 with pleasure forever in heaven. Won’t you trust Jesus right now?
Messages of God’s Love 7/12/2020