Hopping Tadpoles
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” – 2 Corinthians 5:17
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” – 2 Corinthians 5:17
I heard a toad croaking in my backyard the other day. His coming out of hibernation is a sign that spring must be near.
We have been blessed with toads in our backyard ever since a very wet winter a few years ago produced dozens of small ponds, enabling thousands of little tadpoles to metamorphose into toads. For a week or two, our street and nearby park looked like the land of Egypt during the second plague!
Imagine all those little tadpoles before becoming toads thinking, “I’m going to hop. I know if I try hard enough, long enough, I can hop. I will flex my tail and push very hard.” After many such tries, the tadpole comes to the conclusion that hopping is impossible. “I have tried as hard as a tadpole can try and I have proven it can’t be done.” But one day the tadpole becomes a toad, and hopping, which was impossible before, becomes totally natural and easy.
In reality, tadpoles do not care about hopping. However, many people, before they are made new creatures in Christ Jesus, do try to live a sinless life. This is just as impossible for them to do as it is for a tadpole to hop. Often, after trying their very best to live right, people give up in despair and say it is impossible. But if that same person is transformed by the power of the Blood of Jesus Christ, he is made a completely new creature! That which was impossible before, becomes the natural way to live.
A man who was an alcoholic and could not stop drinking no matter how hard he tried, testifies that after Jesus washed his sins away, even the smell of alcohol was repulsive to him. A drug addict who could not stop using even though he tried rehab and counseling, was instantly set free by the power of Jesus’ Blood. A girl who tried to live a moral life but could not control foul language from coming out of her mouth, found that when Jesus saved her those words were gone.
Down through time, the story has been the same, but always fresh and new. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”