Dying to Survive on Our Own

Sitting in my “writing chair”, beside our fireplace, I was developing my novel when a noise distracted me.

It’s common for a bird to hop around on the fireplace vent outside, but this time, the noise was more … persistent.

What the heck is that little fella doing? I asked myself, wondering what had gotten into my feathery visitor.

Moments later, the clambering grew louder and I could hear tiny objects landing in the alcove beside me.

Figuring the bird dropped some twigs into the vent shaft, I continued writing, until a rapid movement caught my eye.

I was face-to-face with a tiny, brown gecko lizard, who had fallen through the vent. He pressed his nose against the glass, looking utterly confused.

“Oh no!” I said, crouching closer to him, “What am I going to do about you?”

When Ed got home, we unbolted the heavy frame from the fireplace, then removed the glass behind it. Not surprisingly, our reptilian guest zipped away, ducking inside of a tiny opening under the gas insert.

Hoping to find him, we scooped out all of the fake logs and searched, using a tiny mirror with an extension handle.

But he remained elusive.

In a frenzy to live, he was doing all he could to avoid our reach, convinced that he was better off on his own than with our help.

Several times, he crept out, but as soon as he caught sight of us, he scooted back into the “safety” of his dark world.

Desperate to Survive

“We’re just trying to save you,” I explained, hoping that such reasoning might prompt him to come out.

It didn’t work.

I struggled to sleep that night, worried that I’d step out of bed and squish the uninvited creature.

Mr. Lizard was trying to preserve his life, but instead, he avoided the hands that could keep him from perishing.

He was too ignorant to understand that he wasn’t capable of surviving on his own. But we knew that without our help, he would quickly die.

Like the Lizard, We Reject Our Rescuer

Isn’t that the way we are with God? He asks us to come to Him. To surrender our lives to Him.

He promises that, in His hands, we will never perish. In fact, we will thrive.

He reminds us that we can’t survive on our own, no matter how capable we believe ourselves to be.

There is a difference between us and that desperate lizard, though. We are not ignorant. We have been informed. We know better.

I admit it. I tried doing it on my own … didn’t think I needed God, or anybody else.

I was wrong.

I stumbled, headfirst, into a darkness that left me alone, hungry, and desperate – just as that curious reptile was doing.

In Need of a Savior

This morning, I awoke, tiptoeing through the house in search of the lizard. I knew he’d escaped the confines of the fireplace, but where had he wondered off to?

It’s amazing how many dead ends await us as we strive to survive, yet, as Mr. Lizard would discover, each of them turns up empty … void of light.

Before I settled into my writing chair, I lifted the blanket and checked beneath the cushion, not wishing to crush my fragile visitor. Then, I began writing, but only for a moment.

Mr. Lizard must have seen that I was distracted. He ran across the living room, straight for the sliding glass door. Standing on his two hind legs, he stretched his body against the glass, looking outside, surely wondering how to cross that two-inch frame to freedom … to life.

I snuck behind him and slowly slid open the door. He quickly tucked himself inside of my husband’s shoe.

Stealthily, I crept closer to him holding the mirror with the extended handle, and tapped the shoe.

He popped out, then tripped over himself as he tried to stumble into the other shoe, but I was determined. Refusing to give up, I used the mirror to direct his frantic little legs right out the door, where he proceeded to do a front flip and a double roll onto the concrete before he sped out of sight.

With his efforts, and mine, he found freedom. He will live to enjoy another day.

He couldn’t have done it alone, nor could I have helped him had he not been desperate enough to expose himself to me as he attempted to escape the prison in which he’d found himself.

Jesus – Our Gatekeeper

Please understand that I don’t, in any way, compare myself to our precious Savior, but for the sake of this article, it’s fair to say that Mr. Lizard would not have crossed that threshold to life, had I not been there to open the door and guide the frightened little guy to where he belonged.

Jesus does the same for us. He waits until we’ve reached our point of desperation and are willing to be exposed to His guidance. Then, he gently opens the gate and ushers us through it, revealing the life that was created for us and introducing us to our true home, where we belong, with our Divine Creator.

I often wonder why we allow ourselves to flounder so fiercely before we realize that we are helpless on our own, that our Rescuer is waiting to guide us, if we’d only stop running from Him.