Driving from Springfield to Poplar Bluff late one afternoon I counted seventeen dead armadillos along the way. Now this was quite exciting to me since I have always lived on the eastern side of this great country of ours. Armadillos are one thing we didn’t have. Counting them was a way to stay awake and alert. I was intrigued by them. I told my husband, Mark, that I was going to stop the car and inspect one closer if I could find one that “looked fresh.” This task proved impossible. What is up with all these dead prehistoric small-looking dinosaur things?
Google to the rescue, of course! Some great facts are listed there. Armadillos have a leathery armor shell. Well, that should come in handy but something is not working and gone terribly wrong because to date I have yet to see a living specimen. It says that their armor-like skin appears to be their main defense. I don’t think that defense is working too good. Wikipedia says that many species are endangered … really, you think! There has to be some joke out there somewhere about armadillos crossing the road or maybe I should say not crossing it. Our North American nine-banded armadillo tends to jump straight up in the air when it is surprised. This is one wide-eyed animal. When it jumps it consequently often (Snowden translation – always) collides with the undercarriage of passing trucks and cars.
Armadillos will sink in water due to its armor unless it swallows a lot of air and inflates its stomach to twice its normal size which raises its buoyancy above that of water. Now it can swim across narrow streams and ditches successfully unless of course it gets startled, then we all know what that looks like.
Oddly enough the armadillo is used in the study of leprosy because they are susceptible to the disease. Humans can acquire a leprosy infection from handling or eating its meat. Now I’m glad I could not find a not-so-ripe specimen to examine.
I think a lot of Missouri Baptists are getting surprised out in the world like the armadillo. Opposing people with different beliefs startles, confuses, and can ultimately shut us down if we are not looking for the oncoming trucks and cars of life. Of Missouri’s six million people only about 12 percent of us are Southern Baptist. So we hear a lot of different ideas. Sometimes we fill ourselves with twice the amount of air we need just to make it across a ditch or to make a point. I am not going to say anything about the twice normal size of our stomachs. But everyone knows Baptists love to eat and it is not a good meeting without some kind of food. I love Casey’s donuts!
The thing is we have got to make it across the road. We have got to encounter people – all kinds of people. We have to stop being scared and surprised at what this world throws at us and put on our armor and wear it all the time. These little prehistoric guys never take theirs off and they try to keep their soft furry underbellies protected but they have never mastered the art of anticipation. We have to be ready. We have to know what is coming. We can’t jump to our deaths each time something new comes at us. Know your Bible, know His Word, keep it in your heart and over your doorposts. Don’t let the ideas of others infect you like leprosy eating away at what is strong and good. Paul tells us to put on the full armor of Christ so we can be ready. Without it we just might be lying dead on the side of the road included in a count with others that just could not see what was coming their way.