Rev. A. J. Ogden

There is a valuable lesson to be learned from nature; things that grow, things that climb, hop, run and walk. In my small pea patch near our kitchen window, we had one rabbit who became a problem, to say the least. He visited our patch daily, not to hoe, cultivate or take care of the peas, but to eat all the young leaves off of them without permission. I was forced to build a little two foot high chicken wire fence around the peas to keep him out.

When bunny rabbit returned and saw the little fence, my wife who was watching, said he was the most confused, angry and frustrated animal she had ever seen. He reared up to the fence angrily, viewing the luscious pea vines which were well in reach, had it not been for that fence! Pacing around the fence several times, and not finding one single hole to get through, he then found one leaf hanging over which he devoured quickly. Then he desperately began trying to bite the wire to get through. Unsuccessful at that, he paced away from the fence a few feet and sat down, looking as if he was pouting for several hours, like a spoiled child who could not get his way. The story doesn’t seem real I know, but it did truly happen!

In the spiritual realm something similar is happening all the time. People are trying to earn their way to Heaven by their good works, but they never have and never will succeed. No matter how hard you try to be a Christian, you will never become a Christian until you are born into God’s family by the new birth. John 3:7 “Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again.”