Sharon was a little girl who lived on a large farm. Her mother had given her a hen and eggs to be hatched. Sharon looked forward to the time when she would have some little chicks all her own.
But these eggs were not all the same size: seven of them were hen’s eggs and six were duck eggs. For many days the little mother hen patiently sat on the nest. After about three weeks, two distinct families of little, yellow, downy birds had hatched. Sharon was very excited and decided to make a house for the new family.
One morning a few weeks later when she went to the chicken house to feed them, she discovered that all of the young ducklings were gone and only the chickens were left. She ran and told her mother the sad news. Her mother laughed and said to Sharon, “You go down to the pond in the field and see if you can find them there.” So Sharon hurried off to the pond. Sure enough, there were six little ducks having a wonderful time enjoying their first swim on the water. She tried to get them to come back to the shore, but no, they were too much at home on the water and having too good a time to leave. It was just as natural for them to be on the water as it was for the chicks to be on the land.
Even though both were hatched in the same nest, the two families had different natures.
Mother used this little incident to teach Sharon a lesson she never forgot. She told Sharon that we all were born with a nature that is selfish, loves to sin, loves the world and its pleasures, and is against God. But when a person gets saved, he is “born again,” born of God. He receives a new nature that is holy, it cannot sin, and loves to obey and please the Lord Jesus. However, the old nature still remains in the Christian as long as he is alive. The believer is to keep this old nature in the place of death, through the power of the death of Christ. Sometimes though, we let it become very active.
The old nature can only sin; the new nature cannot sin. May the Lord help each of us who are saved to walk in the power of that new life, so that Christ might shine forth in us.
ML-12/14/1980