I've had a couple of object lessons on sin from the animal kingdom.Lesson #1: We had a recent infestation of sugar ants around the kitchen sink. To get rid of them, I put out an insecticide called, Terro. It is a thick syrupy fluid containing borax. The ants were attracted to the sweet syrup. They eat it, take it back to the colony, and then die. It works very well.
For some reason, this reminded me of sin. Sin disquises itself to be a "delight to the eyes and good for food". Those poor ants gorged themselves and even shared it with their family and friends. Everyone was enjoying it, everyone was doing it, so what harm can be in that? From appearances it was good for them but in reality it was poison. They were all dead in two days.
Lesson #2: I always thought that our bunny, Lizzy, was relatively smart. However, in some things she is really stupid. She will eat the carpet in her condo as well as chew on plastic. Here are two substances that do not bear any resemblance to anything edible and yet she munches on them. If she's not careful, she'll get her system blocked up.It's not as strong an analogy as the ants because, as an animal, she may be acting purely on instinct to chew things. However, in our case, we're smarter than the bunny. Sometimes due to the hardness of our hearts, we indulge in sin knowing full well it's wrong.
Sin so bewitches the soul, that it makes the soul call evil good, and good evil; bitter sweet and sweet bitter, light darkness and darkness light; and a soul thus bewitched with sin will stand it out to the death, at the sword's point with God; let God strike and wound, and cut to the very bone, yet the bewitched soul cares not, fears not—but will still hold on in a course of wickedness, as you may see in Pharaoh, Balaam, and Judas. Tell the bewitched soul that sin is a viper that will certainly kill when it is not killed, that sin often kills secretly, insensibly, eternally, yet the bewitched soul cannot, and will not, cease from sin.
(from Precious Remedies Against Satan' Devices - Thomas Brooks)
I have used my aging, neurotic Beagle to give parallels before. She will get a sore stomach from having eaten something she shouldn't; Kleenex usually. But she will continue to eat despite the fact that she is in obvious discomfort. She seems to think that eating more will remedy her discomfort.
ReplyDeleteYour beagle must have a cast iron stomach. :)
ReplyDeleteIt's ironic that Lizzy eats these bad things because she's the one pet that we've never had to take to the vet for illness.