Just recently, I was putting the kids into the car and we saw a caterpillar. It was fuzzy, green, and directly behind the front wheel of our van. I probably would have forgotten about him, climbed into the driver’s seat, and gone into reverse without a second thought, but one does not do this in front of small children to whom each bug is a new best friend.
After once and for all time settling the question of whether or not the caterpillar could be our new house pet (“He could be like our dog, Mom!”), we decided that the best thing we could do for him is move him away from the path of the van so as not to “goosh” him (as Aid said).
I poked him with a stick, and then two sticks. I tried to get him to climb onto one or the other so I could move him. I tried picking him up in every way I could think of without the aforementioned “gooshing” occuring. Still, the caterpillar refused to be rescued.
I finally got him to move enough that my car wouldn’t kill him and we were able to move on.
As we were driving, I got to thinking about this picture a little more…
Metaphorically, I think I must look a lot like that caterpillar … I’m often stuck behind a giant wheel of sin and pride that will “goosh” me, yet how often I refuse the gentle prodding of offered rescue because I – in a grand delusion of deceit – believe that the stick will hurt me and that I must move in my own strength, will, and time.
The verse that kept coming to my mind is a passage from the book of Hebrews: “But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” (Hebrews 3:13, ESV)
Even thought my little caterpillar picture is silly and ordinary, there is nothing silly, ordinary, or commonplace about grace. Grace saved me and teaches me – now and until the day that I will see Christ face to face.
The hand of Grace is extended – have you reached for it?
He breaks the power of canceled sin, he sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean, his blood availed for me
His blood can make the foulest clean, his blood availed for me
Great analogy to God’s grace and matters of the spirit. Thanks for sharing.
Dad
PS. So what did you name your new pet caterpillar
I loved this post. It just goes to show just how God gives little lessons and reminders all the time. Thanks!
Thanks, Angela! So glad you stopped by!
Lovely analogy, and one with which I identify. Reminds me in many ways of a sometimes fellow-resident of your area, but a couple of generations older: Paul Harvey used to find some opportunity, every Christmas season, to retell the story of the man and the birds. And along those lines, I’d suggest that there’s yet another analogy here: we serve a God who didn’t merely steer His car away to keep from gooshing the caterpillar, didn’t use sticks to _prod_ the caterpillar out of the danger zone, didn’t even gently pick the caterpillar up in His hands to _carry_ it to a place of safety. Instead, He freely chose to become a caterpillar, and then not as the king of caterpillars but as the least among them and the servant of all, that He might _lead_ them to safety.
Uncle Paul, how I love the picture of mercy you have created here!