Many years ago, when I was a teen, somehow my father and I got in this conversation about urban wildlife. He'd grown up on a farm, and seen all kinds of (wild) animals in all kinds of situations, including their interactions with humans and human artifacts.

"Normally, a rat won't get itself into a situation it can't get itself out of," he said.

We human beings do it all the time.

Preschool playmates Johnny and Michael each had been warned, sternly and in no uncertain terms, by his parents, any number of times, to stay away from the dump.

It was still their favorite place to play.

Here they are; and here's this refrigerator, which, in specific flaunting of all the regulations, someone had put there with the door intact.

They climb in. Is this a rowboat? Maybe a tank. Maybe Noah's ark. Hey, let's close the door.

Can't get it back open.


Does God save from sin, or instead (and only) from circumstances?

What will "salvation" mean in this scenario?
Will it be salvation from circumstances only, or also from sin?

That the boys are in this situation reflects several parties' sin(s): (1) Michael's disobedience of his parents; (2) Johnny's disobedience of his parents; (3) some unknown person's disregard for the law -- and for others' safety. Can these boys be saved from the situation, without also being saved from sin?

Up till now, when I have posed things like this on this forum, I usually get no response at all. What so-called "responses" do appear, usually at once start spinning "epicycles" so that, in no time, "we're" focused instead on the need to wall off Gaza or some ungodly thing an idolatrous coworker said to ________ this morning.

Please, let's not do that this time. Please focus responses on only these things: these boys; that fridge; and where God is in this situation.

P.