Study – Grow – Know

What a Tragic Image…

October 26, 2012 at 4:41 PM 1 comment

Photographer unknown

I saw this posted on a friend’s wall of a social network and could not stop looking at it.  If ever a photo speaks 1,000 words, this is it.  What is the girl thinking?  What is she feeling?

It reminds me that here in America, as in many countries, we have much and I wonder how often we are thankful for what we have?  The blessings that have come our way for being in America can easily be discounted and minimized.  Then we see a photo like this, with a young girl from India cradling a dead rat.

I have no idea of the story behind the image.  But do we really need to know?  Here, a young girl caresses a dead rat as if it is the only thing that she loves or loved her.  How can anyone look at this photo and not have a heart that reaches out to her?  To me, this image is really haunting.  It truly pulls at the heart.  How can it not?  Who does not want to pick this young girl up and carry her away from the world that has hurt her or left her without love?

I look at this photo and I cannot help but think of what Jesus would do.  What would He say?  Certainly He would take the time to hold her close to Him, speaking gentle words of love and encouragement.  He would try to shine the light of His love in her heart.

When we think of rats, we normally don’t think in terms of them being cuddly creatures.  That is, unless you’ve had them as pets.  Normally rats are seen as vermin, carriers of many diseases.  But here, this young girl sees something more and lifts the rat to her own chest not concerned (because of her age) about any potential diseases.

Folks, we are the rat in that photo.  In our natural state, we are completely bereft of substance.  We are vermin, carrying a disease called the sin nature, the very thing that separates us from God.  Yet, because of His love, He did not forget us.  He did not ignore the tragedy that we brought upon ourselves when our first parents sinned.  We attempted to tell God that we did not need Him and to not bother us.  Leave us alone.

Because of sin, we died in our own helplessness.  Just as the rat died, we died spiritually and all of us will eventually die physically.  It is inescapable.  But God, in His great love for humanity, provided a way that would allow Him to reach out to us and lift us up from our own self-created world decay.

Ephesians 2 is a chapter that portions out for us the reality of how much God loves us and gave Himself for us, in order that we might begin to understand His love and through that, learn the mystery of what it means to become born again (cf. John 3).  Paul tells us that “…God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:4-7).

So we also – being spiritually dead – are raised to new life in Christ Jesus.  Why?  For one reason only.  It is because of His tremendous love, love that we do not deserve, yet are the recipients of and because of it, we gain immeasurably.

Sometimes, it is very difficult to see any good in other human beings.  Sometimes, it is also very difficult to see good in ourselves.  The reason for that is because we have all fallen short and anything we might consider to be good or righteous is nothing more than filthy rags to God.  Yet, He sees what we can become, when He remakes us in the image of His Son.  Of course it takes time and it is something that will not be completed until we see Him face to face.

But it starts in this life, when we understand through the truth He provides that Jesus is who He says He is and has done what He has said He did.  Once we come to terms with this truth, we have the choice and chance to receive it and embrace it.  Embracing it means we become new creatures in Him.

For me, the photo above reminds me in a very real way just how much God loves us and wants the best for us, beginning with eternal life.  No matter how bad things can become for people in this life, God continues to hold out the hope of eternal life to each and every person.  Are you one who needs that salvation?

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