One day a biologist came to his lab and, as always, he went first to look lovingly at his most prized possession, a lovely geranium in a beautiful clay pot. The biologist had worked years to develop this geranium, and it was the picture of perfection. This morning, to the amazement of the biologist, he saw a line-up of a large number of caterpillars on the rim of the clay pot. The caterpillars were moving in a constant column, and were lined up in such a way that the caterpillar who was in the lead was actually immediately behind the last caterpillar in the line-up. The rim was completely encircled by beautiful, healthy caterpillars. Inside the clay pot, just a few inches from the rim, and from the caterpillars, was the biologist’s pride and joy, the geranium.
Now the biologist knew that this luxuriant geranium was of a species most favored by caterpillars. And he knew too that the caterpillars would see that at the foot of the geranium the biologist had formed a small pool of clear, cool, inviting water.
The biologist watched, entranced as the caterpillar in the lead started moving ahead, and all behind him followed, around and around the rim of the clay pot. A young caterpillar near the middle of the line-up said, “Where are we going?” An older caterpillar just up ahead shot back, “Where do you think we are going? We are walking around the edge of this clay pot!” The older caterpillar bemoaned, “I sometimes wonder about the younger generation. Why must they question every single turn in the road of life? Why can they not be just like everyone else; keep their eyes on where we are going and learn to conform?” And with much tongue clicking and nodding of heads, all of the caterpillars continued following the leader on their trek around the rim of the clay pot.
Soon the young caterpillar began to get somewhat bored by the monotony of the walk around the rim of the clay pot. He had made a mental note of a large bump on the rim of the clay pot, and, (for lack of anything better to do), he had kept track of the number of revolutions which he and the other caterpillars had made around the rim of the clay pot. Also he had been watching as the sun moved across the sky, faded into starry night, only to rise again the following morning. The young caterpillar kept track of the number of days which had gone by since he and the other caterpillars had started on their trek around the rim of the clay pot.
“Did you know that we have now made 686 revolutions around the rim of this clay pot?”, the young caterpillar asked of no one in particular. All of the caterpillars merely rolled their eyes, shook their heads and tried to ignore the young upstart. “Well, it’s true”, he continued. “And more than that, I can tell you that we have now been 4 days on this continuous trek around the rim of the clay pot”.
One of the elder caterpillars could take this no longer. And between deep gasps for breath, (for the elder caterpillar was nearing exhaustion), he shot back, “Will you please just fall into line?”
Days went by and the caterpillars, (particularly the older ones), were becoming very tired and thirsty and hungry. So the biologist had compassion on the caterpillars and, in spite of the fact that it would ruin his favorite geranium, he broke off a beautiful branch and laid it up close to the edge of the rim of the clay pot, right where every caterpillar went by. “Much as it pains me to do this to my favorite geranium, there is no other way to make these caterpillars see that here just alongside of the rim of the clay pot is all of the food and water they so desperately need. The caterpillars can’t help but see that the way is now open for them to come and eat and drink”. To the biologist’s surprise however, not a single caterpillar seemed aware that the tasty branch from the biologist’s favorite geranium was right there along side of the rim of the clay pot. One particularly luscious looking leaf fell right on the path; the caterpillar’s tired feet tramped right over it until soon it was ground into the rim of the clay pot. And the caterpillars continued on their walk to doom, around the rim of the clay pot.
The older, weaker caterpillars began, one by one, to be overcome by hunger and thirst and exhaustion. And they fell to the ground dead. Soon only the young caterpillar remained.
The biologist couldn’t understand! “I have given of my best. I have provided food and water, more than you could ever need. I have shown you the way. All that you have to do is to come. Why do you not come?”
The young caterpillar knew he must make a decision. With tired eyes he looked longingly at the beautiful geranium just right there at his feet. Oh how wonderful to eat of that luscious fiber! And he saw the inviting pool of cool, fresh water. He could just feel the relief that would come from the sweet coolness of water in his parched throat.
Then he thought of the words of the older caterpillars and how they had warned that he must learn to conform. Slowly, wearily, the young caterpillar turned and moved off, now alone on the trek around the rim of the clay pot.
And the biologist cried. . . . . . .
How often do we miss out on the blessings and provision of God because we are too focused on religion rather than what our living God is doing?
MORE IDEAS? See “Creative Object Lessons”
200 page e-book that explains everything you need to know when planning your very own object lessons. It contains 90 fully developed object lesson ideas and another 200 object lesson starter ideas based on Biblical idioms and Names / Descriptions of God.
