The Camel’s Conundrum

The other day I heard about a baby camel that asked, “Mom, why do I have these huge three-toed feet?” The mother replied, “To help you stay on top of the soft sand while trekking across the desert.”
“And why the long eyelashes?”
“To keep sand out of your eyes on our trips through the desert.”
“Why the humps?”
“To store water for our long treks across the barren desert.”
The baby camel considered that and then said, “That’s great, Mom. We have huge feet to stop us from sinking, long eyelashes to keep sand out of our eyes, and humps to store water. But, Mom …”
“Yes, son?”
“Why are we in the zoo?”

That’s a question for all of us to consider. If we’ve been given all the resources we need to carry our Lord’s message far and wide, and if we’re completely equipped to fulfill the Great Commission, why do we keep it within the four walls of our churches? The Gospel isn’t something we come to church to hear; it’s something we go from church to tell.
That point was on our Lord’s mind when He preached His Sermon on the Mount and compared His church to a bowl of salt: “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” (Matthew 5:13).

David Jeremiah, Signs of Life (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2007), 22-23.