lions and tigers and bears

My favorite animals to watch are the big cats. Thanks to Marlin Perkins, I've not always had to watch them in a zoo.

As a rule, I feel there is something dreadfully wrong about putting an animal in a cage. Especially when the cage is much too small for the animal to have any semblance of freedom. Animals although subservient to man deserve better.

My cats, my big cats, they exude power, confidence, intrigue, bravery. And yet somehow they look genteel and approachable. But they are conflicted, annoyed. This cage is not their home. They deserve to be free, unrestricted by the confines of man.

I have a friend. He's a lot like those animals.

Just to look at him, you'd be awed by his sheer strength. He is a man of strong moral character and great resolve. He's learned much and knows well enough to share the bounty. He is God-fearing to say the least. He's earned the respect and love of his family and friends and deservedly so.

But this world. This cage is not his home. For all that is good and is true, heaven is his home. And he is bound by the restrictions put upon by himself and his surroundings.

He and the rest of us fortunate enough to be called children of God, we are confined. Confined to serve on this sod until God sees fit to call us home. Until then, we pace. We toil. We sweat. We work to serve the One who gave us life.

Someday we will join Him. We will forget all about our cages. Because we won't be able to see anything else besides His glory.

Until that day, we do well to look outside the cage. To focus on our home. To see the One who put us here and Who brought us through.

I love you, you gentle giant. But don't mourn your cage. Grow despite it, not to spite it. Christ is our Victor. No cage confines Him. Don't let yours confine you. In Him, with Him, and through Him, there is no cage.

Matthew 16:18-19
¹⁸ On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
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If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.

- Isaac Newton