JOHN was nine years old and lived on a cattle ranch in the western part of Texas. There were many cotes on the prairies, so John’s father bought a beautiful, thoroughbred greyhound to protect the calves. When Blackie was not chasing cotes, he liked to chase rabbits.
John would often throw his hat in the air and shout until he was hoarse as he watched the dog chase a jack rabbit. The rabbit would lay back both ears and run for his life with the dog at his heels. John noticed that a jack rabbit would never run into a place of safety; there were many badger holes, haystacks, granaries, and even hollow logs he could have hidden in — but he never did. It seemed as if his proud and haughty spirit would not admit that he needed any help or any refuge. Too proud to hide, too self-confident to run to shelter, spurning the hole in the ground or a ledge of rock, the jack rabbit depended on his strong hind legs — and lost! The jack rabbit was a great runner but he couldn’t outrun a greyhound.
One day Blackie noticed a little cottontail rabbit in the brush of the river bottom and started to chase the tiny animal. He was only about a third the size of the jack rabbit. John thought to himself, “Too bad, little rabbit. You don’t have a chance.”
Suddenly, Blackie’s bark changed in tone. At first John wondered if the dog were hurt but when he pushed his way through the brush he found him howling and scratching at a rock half as big as a house. Into a hole under the overhanging ledge of this rock, not more than four inches above the ground, the little cotton-tail rabbit had run and was perfectly safe. The helpless little rabbit could not depend upon its own tiny legs but it had the good sense to run to a place of safety in the rock.
John grew to be a man and a believer in the Lord Jesus. He has often thought of these two rabbits — the long-legged, proud, independent jack rabbit that never seeks a place of safety, and the timid little cottontail, who immediately runs to a safe hiding place at the first alarm — as a picture of the two attitudes of sinners. Some people say, “I’ll take my chance. I am not afraid.” So they try to outrun sin and Satan themselves. They depend on reform and on their good deeds, and their pride keeps them from running to the place of safety in the Lord Jesus Christ. They do not want to think that their sins will find them out, but God’s Word says, “Be sure your sin will find you out.” Numbers 32:2323But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the Lord: and be sure your sin will find you out. (Numbers 32:23); and also, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Galatians 6:77Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. (Galatians 6:7).
We hope, dear reader, that you have seen your danger and have run to Christ the Rock, for mercy and salvation. If not, He waits to receive you today with outstretched arms. Of Him we read, “And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.” Isaiah 32:22And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. (Isaiah 32:2).
ML-12/13/1970