by Kelly Moran
for 23 August 1995
A three-foot-long alligator was captured in Queens last month.
Several fishermen claimed to see an alligator in the Kissena Park Lake, probably prompting authorities to wonder what they really had in the ice chest.
Park rangers were called out, and the alligator emerged from the lake, hissing. From a day-camp on the lake, some guy appeared, saying he "had previous experience handling reptiles." That's apparently how he got his job at the day-camp.
The park ranger said, "The guy just swooped down and grabbed the alligator. And I wrapped a big rubber band around its mouth."
"We believe that this is a released pet," said Parks Commissioner Henry Stern. The alligator's owners "probably thought it was very cute until it got big," Stern said, adding, "It reminds me of the Ogden Nash poem: 'The trouble with a kitten is that, eventually it becomes a cat.'"
By the way, if you're going to be visiting New York, relax. Stern said, "We found no other alligators in the lake."
While newborns are only ten inches long, they grow at the rate of about a foot a year. One day, you measure your little friend and find that he's three feet long. The razor-sharp teeth are two inches and the jaws are strong enough to take off your leg. The alligator in New York was between three and five years old. It doesn't take them long to be deadly.
The Spiritual mistakes we make are called sins. Not a popular word, sin. But sin amounts to us doing our thing, instead of God's thing.
The Apostle Paul wrestled with sin just as you and I do. He wrote, "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do." (Romans 7:15)
Sometimes, sin looks pretty cute. It can appear to be harmless. But when we allow a few indulgences here and there, God loses control. More specifically, we seize control back from God. It doesn't take sin very long to become deadly.
"I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature," Paul wrote. "For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it." (Romans 7:18-20)
Why would anyone think an alligator would make a good pet? Some do. Maybe there's a little daredevil in them to make them want to take a risk.
The risk we take with sin is too great. It isn't worth risking your soul to have a little indulgence.
"The trouble with a kitten is that, eventually it becomes a cat." This is also true with sin.
Can you relate to Paul when he says, "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" His answer: "Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans 7:24-25)
God, Thank you for your Only Son, our Only Hope.
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All Scripture references are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version (unless otherwise noted).
Copyright 1995 by Kelly Moran.