THE SENSITIVE PLANT
Several years ago, I read of a small and very unique plant referred to as the “sensitive plant.”
This plant derived its name from its unusual ability to react visibly when touched. When a person
reaches out and touches the plant it will actually quiver and close its leaves in response. Each
time it is touched, however, it will react less and less, until it can finally no longer be moved to
respond. Continued touching brings about a slow, but steady, “desensitizing” of the plant.
What a vivid lesson this should be to all people! The lesson? People are much like that little
plant! We can have our consciousness of sin so often assaulted that it takes an ever-increasing
dosage of sin to cause us to even raise an eyebrow. Our society today has been fed such a con-
stant diet of vulgar language, sex, nudity and anemic ethics through the “entertainment” media
that some folks just accept it and go on. Our nation--our society--is quickly approaching the point
where, like Israel of old, we “do not know how to blush” (Jer. 6:15). This situation is described by Paul as that which afflicted the Gentiles in Ephesians 4:19
when he speaks of them as “being past feeling.” Those people long ago had lived with sin so
long they become hardened by it and could no longer be made to feel the emotions of guilt, sor-
row and shame. All those emotions had withered as a result of their sins! Doesn’t that sound like
a description of many folks in our society today?
As we seek to spread the saving message of Jesus--which the New Testament calls the
gospel--we must ever be mindful of those who are paralyzed by sin. It is this nature--this, old de-
cayed man--that we seek to help them put away while creating a new man it its place (Eph. 4:
22-24). And we must remain alert lest we also become too cozy with the world and its ways and find
ourselves like the “sensitive plant” and the Gentiles--past feeling.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: An employee once stretched his coffee break--all the way to the
unemployment office!
Love ya,
Jesse
This plant derived its name from its unusual ability to react visibly when touched. When a person
reaches out and touches the plant it will actually quiver and close its leaves in response. Each
time it is touched, however, it will react less and less, until it can finally no longer be moved to
respond. Continued touching brings about a slow, but steady, “desensitizing” of the plant.
What a vivid lesson this should be to all people! The lesson? People are much like that little
plant! We can have our consciousness of sin so often assaulted that it takes an ever-increasing
dosage of sin to cause us to even raise an eyebrow. Our society today has been fed such a con-
stant diet of vulgar language, sex, nudity and anemic ethics through the “entertainment” media
that some folks just accept it and go on. Our nation--our society--is quickly approaching the point
where, like Israel of old, we “do not know how to blush” (Jer. 6:15). This situation is described by Paul as that which afflicted the Gentiles in Ephesians 4:19
when he speaks of them as “being past feeling.” Those people long ago had lived with sin so
long they become hardened by it and could no longer be made to feel the emotions of guilt, sor-
row and shame. All those emotions had withered as a result of their sins! Doesn’t that sound like
a description of many folks in our society today?
As we seek to spread the saving message of Jesus--which the New Testament calls the
gospel--we must ever be mindful of those who are paralyzed by sin. It is this nature--this, old de-
cayed man--that we seek to help them put away while creating a new man it its place (Eph. 4:
22-24). And we must remain alert lest we also become too cozy with the world and its ways and find
ourselves like the “sensitive plant” and the Gentiles--past feeling.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: An employee once stretched his coffee break--all the way to the
unemployment office!
Love ya,
Jesse
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