ON DISPLAY
The animal kingdom is a beautiful display of God’s glory. And today there is an aspect of it that has me thinking about how much we can learn about ourselves from creation. Specifically the protection strategies of animals. Some use mimicry to look like others. Some are invisible. Some burrow down into the ground to disappear.
MASKING
All of these in way are masking. Ways the animals conceal their weakness in order to appear strong, maybe in order to appear like something entirely different, or in order to not appear at all.
For example these animals hide in plain sight:
The flounder looks like its surroundings. A chameleon changes its colors in order to blend in. A jellyfish is transparent. A stingray resembles the sand.
Others are dressed dangerous, but are far from it:
The harmless viceroy looks similar to the monarch butterfly that is toxic if eaten. The milk snake looks similar to the poisonous coral kind. The clear wing moth looks like a bumble bee without the sting.
Yet all of them are vulnerable. All of them still have their weakness no matter what they may appear to be.
SELF RELIANCE AND DEFIANCE
I find that in the human race we can fall back on strategies of self protection. Trying to hide in plain sight by dressing ourselves up like someone we are not. Trying to appear invisible never wanting anyone to be aware we are there. Apparently transparent, but dangerously cloaked. Putting on personalities that repel or ward off others. All because we feel weak as ourselves and wish to be different.
God made us the way we are. He said we are good, but we beg to differ with Him. So we talk and walk like someone we are not. Why not just be real? It’s hard to be real, but so much harder to make sure we are dressed up for our surroundings. Are you dressing yourself for God or others in order to appear that you are someone you are not?
We don’t have to. God loves us just the way we are. People should too. If they don’t then that is an environment we shouldn’t stay in. Rather than wasting time on strategies that will repel the dangerous whom we want desperately to accept us, let’s let go of the camoflauge and the micmickery. Let’s come out of hiding.
Adam and Eve had a strategy after they fell from grace. They hid and dressed themselves in their surroundings to blend in. God knew where they were, yet called out to them, “Where are you? Who told you that you were naked?”
SACRIFICE
Instead of dressing ourselves up for God and for folks who have no say in our eternal destiny. What if we were real? What if we were who we are? What if we present our naked selves before God and let Him dress us. What if we put on Jesus instead of our put-ons.
Instead let’s put on the armor of God. Let’s put Christ whose is our strength. Let’s come out of hiding and be real. Reality is that our identity in Christ is more real than any reality we find ourselves in on this earth. God made the first sacrifice of animals for mankind, and He made the last sacrifice of His Son for us as well. He clothes us. If we let Him.
27 You were baptized into union with Christ, and now you are clothed, so to speak, with the life of Christ himself.
Galatians 3:27 GNT
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Another Samaritan Woman 