The Jaws Of Life

I would like to share with you a parable that was told to me (by Bro. Ron Gordy) when I was in Billings. I have modified it slightly and called it The Parable Of The Jaws Of Life. This parable has been in both my life and in every person who has ever lived, including Jesus Christ. We'll get to more about that later.

The Jaws of Life are a powerful tool that firefighters use to help people get out of their vehicles when they're trapped inside. They can be extremely useful because, when in an accident, firefighters want you to move as little as possible, in case you have serious injuries. With the Jaws of Life, it allows those firefighters to get you out of the car, with as little movement from you as possible. This is quite the handy tool. How the Jaws of Life is so effective is those two big forks in the front. When those are brought together, you can fit them into some small cracks or seams in the car. The hydraulic system allows those forks to separate, moving anything that's around it out of the way. The Jaws Of Life won't work that well if there are no seams in the car.

In the same way, our life, who we are spiritually, is like a car. We always have our "bumps in the road" and those things which sometimes really make us mad (traffic, low mileage, no gas, oil leaks, flat tires, squeaky fan belt, etc.). As we drive through this life, we come across spiritual dangers that can make us vulnerable to attacks from all sides. There will be other cars (people) that try to influence us to put sand in our gas tank (drugs, alcohol, etc.). There will be cars that drive us to the destruction derby to look at all of the beat up cars (pornography), and there will be other cars that lead you to the junk yard. This is a tough world to live in, and there is one tougher enemy that will want to get inside your car, Satan. He has his own plans to turn you into those "other cars," the cars who try to influence you to do bad. The way Satan is going to do that is with his Jaws of Life. Even Jesus Christ was tempted to do things that, from the outside, looked like it would have helped Him. Satan tried to find and get into Christ's cracks and seams, but Christ didn't have any. Jesus Christ is our example.

Satan's Jaws of Life are powerful, but luckily for you, you have a very strong frame (continuing with the car analogy). You have a powerful engine that can let you go anywhere and do anything, and tires that can take you off-roading anywhere you need to go. However, when we develop the attitude of, "I have a perfect frame!", Nothing can hurt this car!" etc., that's when Satan's Jaws of Life will start digging into that crack you've just made. He wants to get inside you to do even more damage to you. Remember, all he needs is a small crack, not a large one, to do his work.

As we start to feel his influence in our life, and as we start to feel as though we're not the ones "taking the wheel," we need to go to the ultimate repair man, Jesus Christ. He can fix our cracks, seal our seams, give us a realignment, and even pop out our dents that could cause problems later. As we go to our Savior, He will repair our souls, and even change us, turning us from:

this    -    to this.