Poison
When my family moved to Texas, we had no idea the abundance of wildlife we would encounter, up close and personal. Since moving into our home we have had a scorpion in the coat closet, geckos in the pantry, angry hornets in the garage, and lizards on the porch. Most recently, we were cleaning off the kitchen counter which has multiple dark flakes of stone adorning its surface, when I noticed that one of those flakes was moving. I thought I had spilled a little pepper and it moved with the currents of my activity, but then another moved, and another. A careful look revealed several tiny little ants that had made their way into the house, up the cabinetry, and onto the counter. In my defense, they did look like little flakes of pepper with legs.
I grew up in central Indiana with a family that loved outdoor sports. Particularly, we enjoyed hunting and fishing. Mom and dad would often wake us up on a Saturday morning, load the cane poles on top of the car, pile us all into the back seat of our Buick, and head to the lake. We would fish all day, enjoying the water, family and fun. To this day it is a thrill to see a bobber start moving and bobbing, anticipating a full submersion baptism from a wily fish. It’s refreshing.
Dad would take us a half block down our street to the railroad tracks that hosted multiple trains every day. Their horns would herald their coming with loud and long blasts warning of impending danger. We walked mile after mile of track hunting rabbits, quail and pheasants. At first, I hunted with a BB gun, then graduated to a 20 gauge shotgun. Having seen my 60th birthday, I am still a hunter.
It is with this attitude that I viewed those little ants; as prey. Pepper flake sized or not, they had invaded our inner sanctum and needed to be exterminated. I donned my full camo outfit, sharpened my knife and sat quietly in the corner of the kitchen, barely flinching when a fly landed on my sleeve. Then my wife walked in.
“What are you doing,” she asked? “Why are you sitting on the kitchen floor in full camo, holding an unsheathed knife and chanting The Ants Go Marching One by One?” As if someone flicked me in the back of my head, I came back to reality with a start, embarrassed that I was singing off key. All I could think to say was, “uhhh….you talk’in to me?”
I had no idea that my hunting instinct was so strong. I sheathed the knife and began studying better ways to eliminate the pests from our kitchen counter. I learned of a product called Terro. It’s ingenious. It’s a sweet sticky syrup that ants absolutely love. It’s a little like a lollipop, except instead of a chewy tootsie roll center, the surprise inside is a slow poison that is carried back to the nest, eliminating the problem.
After laying a few drops of the product on the counter, the ants quickly lined up all around it to drink in the sweet fluid. They looked like a thirsty herd of cows fighting for a drink at a watering hole. About two days later, the ants quit coming. The poison had infiltrated the nest and the ants were gone.
I couldn’t help but think of sin and the reason Jesus came to die on the cross. Sin is like that sticky syrup. It usually tastes great and draws us to it, yet the surprise inside is death. It didn’t just take out one person, but it took out all humanity. It killed us spiritually. And Jesus, dear Jesus, brought us back to life through his sacrifice on the cross. The cost was beyond understanding, the gift unexplainable. Yet he loved us and still loves us.
And here is the rub. Our sin is so detestable, so comfortable, and so familiar, that we actually try to hang onto it, even with the knowledge of what Jesus did for us. Too many live with one foot in the world and one foot at the cross. Hear this truth, according to 2 Corinthians 5, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”
Sin resulted in total and complete separation from God. Yet because of the love God has for you, he provided a way for you to live with him eternally, and this is a free gift through Jesus Christ the Savior. Are you a new creation? Are you a child of God? Or do you dabble in the world, in sin that like the ant poison, seems sweet at the time but brings destruction upon those who drink of it. There is no fence to stand on. There is no half way.
Prayer
God, open our eyes to who we are. A people designed by you, created by you and sustained by you. We pray Psalm 51 over our lives. Keep us from presumptuous sin, and lead us in the way everlasting. Amen
Shannon
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