Picture yourself walking in the woods. As you stumble over dead limbs, get pricked by thorns, and enjoy God’s nature, you begin to smell something horrific. (And no, it’s not just the everyday smell of Arkansas!) The smell gets stronger and at last you see the source — a dead armadillo. When you go look at it, you see the insides filled with nasty bugs and maggots. Yuck!
Now think of this story in relation to Christ. The world we live in represents the armadillo — dead, decaying, and filled with despicable little creatures (us) that are obsessed with consuming the world. Jesus Christ came down into this “pest”-infested world and became one of us. He smothered himself in the filth. How many of us would be brave enough to totally engross ourselves in the muck and mire for a cause that did not benefit us? What a privilege it is to serve a God who not only sympathizes with our struggles, but empathizes with us because He literally experienced the life of a maggot.
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