God’s Gift to the Animals
By Kurt Bomar
Avery County
When I do devotions with a new group of children I love to talk about animals and the gifts that God gave to them.
If you stop and think about it—God gives each and every animal a special gift for survival. I like to ask the children to name an animal and I would then them what the special gifts God gave them. It would usually go something like this:
Tigers (they always seem to start with Tigers): That’s easy. They have big claws and sharp teeth and can see well at night.
Horses: They can run really fast
Grasshoppers: They can hop long distances very quickly.
Moles: They can hide underground (unfortunately)
Rabbits: They don’t have much of a defense mechanism, but they are fast, and they can breed prolifically ensuring the survival of the species.
Butterflies: Many are disguised to look like other ones that don’t taste good to birds.
Goats: they can traverse much rockier terrain than their pursuers.
Even a mosquito that can be easily be swatted, can multiply so rapidly that we can’t keep up with them.
On and on the suggestions would come and I haven’t been stumped yet. It’s a fun game to play with your kids.
But then I would tell them that there is one animal that God didn’t give any gift of survival and it doesn’t reproduce particularly fast. In fact, this animal should have gone extinct many years ago.
It’s not big enough to intimidate its predators, it doesn’t have sharp teeth, it can’t run fast, it doesn’t have a good warning system for its friends, It doesn’t have good eyesight and it’s not even smart enough to know when it’s in danger. It’s not even brave enough to protect its young. Do you know what it is?
It’s a sheep. This poor animal is constantly ready to be served up on a platter to any number of predators.
So how did God compensate this poor creature destined for extinction? He gave it a Shepard. Without shepherds, every Sheep in the World would be gone in one generation. And here’s the spiritual application.
It’s interesting that of all the animals in the world, Jesus likens his children to sheep. That ought to make us think. What do we sheep try to do? We try to sharpen our teeth, run faster or get courage. Instead, we should realize that just like sheep, we were intentionally designed not to be able to make it on our own.
What we need to remember is that we have a shepherd who can protect us in all situations and that the secret to our survival is to just stay close to Jesus!
Selah (think about it)
Pastor Kurt Bomar, Walnut Grove Church
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Kurt Bomar is the pastor of Walnut Grove Church located in Avery County. You are welcome to join them on Sundays at 11:00 AM for worship! (When we are allowed to meet in the building again). You can read more Christian news from Kurt Bomar HERE.
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