Daily Bread of week 26(2005)

Every week, I shall share some nice daily bread I had read each week..

Title: Porcupine People

Deep in a Wyoming canyon I came across the biggest porcupine I had ever seen. As he lumbered towards me, I watched him closely and gave him plenty of room. I was not about to get near a guy whose quills looked like missiles. No wonder he was alone!!

But he is not alone all the time. Every November and December, porcupines get close enough to produce offspring. During that time, they choose to relax their quills, then they return to their prickly selves.

In nearly every church, there will be a porcupine or two, with sharp quills of criticism or sarcasm or arrogance. We want to avoid them, but God places us in communities of believers for fellowship. He commands us to love one another- including the porcupines types. And in our honest moments, we have to admit that we had quills too.

John wrote:" He who loves God must love his brother." (1 John 4:21) To do this, we must ask God to relax our "quills" even when people are prickly. It is the way to show the world that we love God.