My good friend, Sharon, shared a story from her classroom recently. An amazing elementary teacher, she had a chameleon in her room for the students to observe and care for. Well, one day they made quite a memorable observation! It was feeding day, which meant live crickets were placed in the tank. The chameleon began enjoying his meal. He had a cricket partially in his mouth when another cricket took notice. Well, that chameleon evidently did not know whose friend he was trying to devour. Apparently, the bystander cricket had a great attachment to the one being consumed. This cricket grabbed the other one with its mouth and began to pull, trying to pull it from the chameleon's mouth. He pulled and the cricket gulped harder. Sharon described it as quite a tug-of-war. The chameleon would gulp and swallow, but then the cricket warrior would grip and pull even harder. Finally, the chameleon surrendered his meal and turned to find another victim as the two cricket friends limped the other direction.
As Sharon relayed this story, I began to imagine us as the crickets. You know...fellow Christians...brothers and sisters in Christ. In this illustration, Satan is the chameleon. He is the one trying with all his might to destroy and devour us. He is as real as the chameleon the kids watched that fateful day. And left alone, just like that cricket, we are easier to devour. God is so smart! He knew we would need each other. Ecclesiastes 4:9 - 10 says, "Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up." In other words, there is no one around to pull him out of the chameleon's mouth! Satan, the chameleon, enjoys when we are tempted and fall into sin. Galatians 6:1 - 2 states, "Brethern, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." Yes, that second cricket could have been the dessert for the chameleon. However, he jumped in to save his friend. That is what we are called to do. If a friend is struggling with something...sin, burdens, life...whatever, we are called to help them bear those burdens.
Do you have a brother or sister stuck in the chameleon's mouth? Pull with all your might until, to the glory of God, they are free and walking in His light again! If you are the one stuck, hang on...your friends are coming!
