Buffaloed By Our Own Folly

"Hear this, you foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear: Should you not fear me?" declares the LORD. 
  "Should you not tremble in my presence?" Jeremiah 5:21-22

I some time ago read the post, "College Roommates" in Joel's "A Day in the Life of Nutuba" and immediately thought, "the man is nostalgic for Curt's pet Buffalo." (You can go to his Blog by clicking the title of this post.) So it seemed a kindness to provide him with a view of a buffalo, in this case, staring me and my camera down.

Now I am often braver with a camera,  sighting through a viewfinder, than my naked eye would recommend, but I admit I took these photos out of the relative safety of my car window.

Granted, given the size of the beast staring back, I'm not sure just how secure I was in our little Pumpkin, as my wife called our orange Cobalt. That monster could probably have cracked it like a pumpkin shell with a single charge.

My wife had felt threatened enough earlier by this ostrich. My wife's reaction to it was pulling the food bucket she held further across the seat toward me and screaming "go away". I had to remind her it would be better to stick the food bucket out her window so the bird would follow suit and I could drive from it.

She finally did and we escaped, but it shows how we people often react counter-intuitive to what might be the better action. 

At least we weren't breaking any commandments.

 When we entered the safari park in Virginia, there was this rule: Do not feed the Zebras...

(Sorry, buddy, the restaurant is closed, my window is up.)

...the Watusi or...

the Bison.

But just like Adam and Eve, who could not follow one simple rule, neither could the family ahead of us.

Take note of the size of the beast to the size of the van. There were two children in the back. The Bison continued forward until it was up to its shoulders into that vehicle. It seemed determined to climb in with them. 

They were fortunate to have gotten away without harm or damages. 

Yet, isn't this the nature of man? God gave us Laws and we refused to keep them, so he provided us with a Savior. Still, we invite all kinds of things into our lives which are potentially harmful and dangerous without a thought to the consequences, but we are reluctant to invite Christ into our hearts.

We throw our doors open to beasts that could easily crush us when we could easily protect ourselves behind the gates of the Kingdom of God, safe in the hands of Jesus and protected by the Holy Spirit. But too often our eyes don't see, our ears don't hear and we show less fear of evil than of God.