A TERRAPIN ON A POST

Probably, it isn't something done much today, but, when I was a child, sometimes people went "for a ride." For a pleasant passing of time, the family would pile into the automobile, head for the country roads, and just drive along slowly down the gravel lanes. Going down those bumpy, dusty roads, often there was something interesting to see. One of the things-besides the huge catfish heads hanging from a fence displayed for all to envy-was an occasional evidence of some child's idea of a prank: There on top an old wooden fence post would be a terrapin (turtle). Now, when one saw Old Hard Shell perched up there, not for one second did he suppose that the terrapin had got up there on his own. He just couldn't have. A higher, bigger power-in this case a kid-had to reach down and lift him up and place him there. As a Christian, if we take a look around from the heights to which God has raised us, we know for certain that we didn't get here on our own. We couldn't have scaled those heights. He lifted us up from the pit He found us. He placed us on a rock. God "raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." (Eph. 2:6). This is salvation by grace and not works.