“John, isn’t it time you cleaned your gerbil tank?”
It was Mom’s third reminder. I thought I’d better get “around-to-it” . . . and now.
“C’mon, Richard,” I said to my younger brother, “you can help. Let’s make a fort out of blocks. We can put the gerbils inside it while I clean the tank.”
My gerbils live in a glass tank with a sturdy screen cover to keep out our cat, Marco. Sometimes Marco lies on the cover of the tank and watches them intently through the screen, his tail twitching now and then.
There are three gerbils in all: Theodore the father, Jemima the mother, and a little ball of black fur that is their baby, the only one that survived out of Jemima’s first litter of three. I haven’t named the baby yet.
Richard and I made a really neat fort, with two stories and a fancy tower. The gerbils were happy to explore their temporary home. I put a block at the opening to keep them safe inside while I went to empty and wash out the tank.
But we found out that our fort and tower were not really strong and safe.
Did you know the Bible talks about a tower that is truly safe? It says, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe” (Proverbs 18:1010The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe. (Proverbs 18:10)). Someone might ask, What is the name of the Lord? Why, it’s the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the One who saves us if we call on Him. He is our strong tower.
When I came back to the bedroom with the clean tank, Richard suddenly cried out and I saw Marco dash out of the room with something furry in his mouth.
“He caught Jemima!” sobbed Richard.
My heart skipped a beat for fear that my little pet was going to die. Then, furiously, I took off downstairs to find that cat, with Richard close at my heels.
We flew down two flights of stairs to the basement, but Marco was nowhere in sight. Just then, my brother Charles came in the back door. He quickly realized what was happening when Marco whizzed past him with the gerbil in his mouth. Nobody is quicker than Charles in our family, and in no time he caught Marco. But Marco would not let go of his prize. Charles was so upset that he tossed Marco out the front door, gerbil-in-jaws and all.
Now Marco is our family cat and we all really like him, but at that moment we didn’t like him. He was the enemy.
But Marco was always the gerbils’ enemy, even when he was lying quietly, watching them. And Satan is always our enemy. He has many ways of tricking us to keep us away from Jesus, the One who loves us. Satan can make us feel comfortable, like a purring cat, and tell us that we are just fine as we are. He assures us that we’ll get to heaven when the time comes because we are pretty good, after all. Or he can terrorize us and tell us that he is in control and that we are too bad for Jesus to love us.
Neither is true. None of us can get to heaven by the good things we do or the bad things we don’t do. We are all sinners and need a Saviour. And Jesus loves us and wants to save us no matter how bad we are. “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:1515This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:15)).
After a little while, Charles went out on the porch to see if Marco had dropped Jemima somewhere and come back. (None of us wanted to see our gerbil dead.) He was surprised to see she was still alive, wobbling outside the front door, with Marco close by. Charles quickly scooped up Marco and brought him in and then went back for Jemima. He picked her up carefully and put her back in the tank.
We were all surprised to see that Jemima had survived being caught by the cat. In spite of a patch of missing fur, swollen-shut eyes and a slightly crippled front leg, she looked like she would live. In fact, Jemima is now fine. Her eyes have healed and she can run around like she used to without a limp.
The Lord Jesus can do more than remove us from Satan’s clutches. He gives us a new life that can please God and be free from guilt and fear. We can be happy in our Saviour’s love, today and forever. “Let all those that put their trust in Thee rejoice . . . because Thou defendest them” (Psalm 5:1111But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee. (Psalm 5:11)).
ML-06/18/1995