The Parable of the Earthworm

It was a beautiful morning. The ground was wet and there were puddles in the parking lot as I entered the church to begin another day. There seemed a crispness in the air as Spring was on it’s way. As I began the 20 yard walk to the front door of the church I noticed that there were several earthworms lying about the parking lot. Obviously the rain from the night before had drawn them out. If you liked earthworms you probably would be struck with a sense of compassion as many had stopped moving and their life had ended on the treacherous journey into the open. But one caught my attention as it was still moving! It still had life! Me being a compassionate person (at times), decided I would show a bit of mercy to the worm and save its life. There was a struggle as the worm curled up and was quite slippery, but I being the stronger of the two – prevailed to save the worm. I carried the earthworm to the nearest dirt area and placed it down ever so gently. Feeling a sense of accomplishment of saving a living species, I had a feeling this was going to be a good day. As I journeyed on to the church door and opened it to enter in, I turned back to look at the location where I had safely set the earthworm down to only notice a bird was pecking on the ground. My sense of accomplishment bubble burst. Then God spoke to me in an unusual way – “This is what happens to most Christians.” You see most churches have a “save’em and seat’em” mentality. You get people in the door, you introduce them to Jesus Christ, He changes their life and then most churches feel they are safe and leave them there. But like my earthworm with the bird - the enemy attacks. Part of the “Great Commission” is in fact to go into the world, but we seem to forget the other part, to teach all that God has commanded. The only way to do that is to be involved in small group Bible study. Yes you can get into the Word on Sunday mornings through the messages, but the disciples affected the world because they met constantly and had many things in common. If you aren’t involved in a small group, such as Sunday School, within the church, then in all honesty you’ve only become the earthworm who has been moved closer to the tree where the bird lives.
Scriptural References: Revelation 12:17-13:1; Matthew 13:1-23; Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 2:42-47