Doctor’s appointment for diabetes

 

Item number one. There was a news item the other day about a man who made a doctor's appointment to check for diabetes. He apparently felt the need of some alcoholic-type of fortification prior to the appointment, so he imbibed. Quite heavily, it appears. So much so that he passed out and when he came to, he discovered that he was missing one of his big toes. His dog had chewed it off! As my granddaughters would say, "Eeewwwweee, yuck!"

But that's not the end of this item, we need to look at "the rest of the story." It turns out that he was diabetic and his injured toe was gangrenous. By chewing off the toe, the dog saved his life. I've read about animals chewing off their own diseased paws and I guess this instinct may have been the dog's motivation here. But, let's see if there's a spiritual lesson here.

The man lost his toe BUT, in so doing, saved his temporal life. What a great parabolic illustration to Christ's teaching about being tempted into sin. Read with me from Matt. 18:8-9 "And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire." (ESV)

So then, what's more important - a toe or your physical life? What's more important - an earthly body part or your eternal life? Jesus is simply drawing us a picture that points out the relative importance of the "earthly" versus the "eternal." It's a decision that we each have to make. To paraphrase the words of the old knight in the movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark" - "Choose wisely."

Here lately at my house we've been fighting a battle against ants. And I'm aware that others in our congregation have been doing the same. It just seems to be one of those years for the little critters. And, to tell you the truth, I'm not really enamored with them. In fact, I'm fast approaching the stage of "despising" them.

But, they are one of God's creatures and even though I, in my "finite" wisdom, sometimes don't see a need for some of them (like flies, mosquitos, gnats etc.) God's "infinite" wisdom saw fit to put them here to share the earth with us. This leads me to my second news item, thus our second lesson for today.

I read an article a while back about "ants" and I thought then that it might someday be useful for a spiritual lesson. I'll attempt to provide you that very thing here. In reading the article I gained some interesting knowledge as to why God so blessed the earth with these creatures - ants. It caused me to look at them a bit differently, not necessarily like them in my house mind you, but I do see them in a different light now. Let me share this "light" with you.

Did you know that some ants know when it's going to rain? That their activities can tell us that? And, that some ants actually herd aphids like cattle which they use for their food. As to benefits to man, scientists say that a large colony of ants will devour millions of insects per year. (Hope that included flies, mosquitos & gnats).

One family of ants, the "Weaver Ants" can maintain their hold on a surface at over 100 times the pull of gravity. And some ants can carry over 100 times their own weight. Other ants harvest the resin secreted by trees and by doing so, they protect the trees from fungus. The ants live on the resin and the trees stay healthy. What a plan.

There are ants in South America that live underground and these ants have developed an air conditioning system for their colonies. They build some ducts that exhale the carbon dioxide and other ducts that bring in oxygen. They even have garbage pits or trash dumps for the underground "ant city."

One astute (?) studier of ants said in the article, and I quote: "It looks as if designed by a single mind." (Well, DUH!) Of course the article goes on to mention (several times) the "evolution" of the ants. And here is where I tie this article in to a spiritual application for us.

How can "science" look at something so simple, yet so complex as an ant, can see how they fit together with the nature around them, IE: their benefits to nature (ex: trees) and us (insects), how they operate as one community or society (they have different jobs within that community, such as scouts, cutters, transporters and even feeders and nurses) and still say that all this came about through "evolution?"

That all this happened by accident and disregard the fact that everything points to a "design by a single mind?" Personally, I think that they have to work at NOT attributing the ants (and all the rest of creation) to a "Designer." To follow up that thought, here's my opinion of WHY they disregard the evidence.

They don't want to say that God is that "Designer." That "Single Mind." I'm afraid, no, I'm convinced, that those who refuse to believe that "God said...." (Gen. 1) and all "living creatures" (including ants) came into being on the earth, will join all the other unbelievers in the "hell of fire." The reason I believe this is because I believe that it requires more faith on the evolutionist's part to believe in "organic evolution" than it does to believe in God as the Creator. Therefore, their "faith" is placed in man and not in God and the "hell of fire" is stated to be the final destination of those who are unbelievers. That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

Ron Covey