Gator Grippin' - A Profound Experience
Gator Grippin has got to be outlawed by now... I mean seriously?!?! This is not your everyday next door neighbor's finger nawing poodle, the stakes are just a tinsy bit higher here. Tiny fingers and little boys wrists are at stake!
Surprisingly, there were only a few simple instructions on how to hold this baby alligator.
Surprisingly, there were only a few simple instructions on how to hold this baby alligator.
Number 2: "DON'T let go."
A Gator this size can do quite a bit of damage. They look small, even arguably cute with that sly grin... but they have enough bite to take off a hand (or at least do permanent damage)! It requires a good grip... you hold on for dear life!
Now holding a gator may seem like a stretch in describing love... but the grip is the key. A strong hold is critical. A baby gator is something so small yet so deadly if we are casual and carefree with how we handle it! James speaks of controlling the tongue with similar urgency (James 3)
“For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well. Now if we put the bits into the horses’ mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well. Look at the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things.”
“See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.”
If even a gator can be tamed, but not the tongue ... how much more seriously should our effort be to consider what we say? As my sister once reminded, "There is a reason we have two ears but only one mouth." Love is a condition of the heart... and what a person says is a clear reflection of that which is within that heart. True love restrains that "little monster" of a tongue ... especially when it seems easier or even necessary to let it run wild!
