The medusa is a jellyfish that makes its home in the Bay of Naples, off the Italian cost. The nudibranch snail also makes its home there. Occasionally, the jellyfish swallows the snail. But then something unusual happens. The snail’s protective shell keeps the jellyfish from digesting it. At this point the tiny snail turns the tables on the jellyfish. It starts to eat the jellyfish from the inside. Unless it is expelled, the tiny snail will eventually consume the jellyfish. This fact of nature is a wonderful lesson to us about sin. Once we take sin in and make it part of our lives, it will consume us from the inside unless we get rid of it, expel it so to speak. Take pride for example. Pride can cause us to do all sorts of destructive things. In refusing to admit one’s own mistakes, it causes us to repeat those mistakes. In refusing to admit the achievements of others, it can drive other people away and leave us alone and lonely. In refusing to admit we have a certain problem, it can allow that problem to destroy us. Jesus summed it up well when He taught, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna” (Mt. 5:29). So, is there a “snail” (sin) I have ingested and is it destroying me from within? Is it time to, with the mercy and grace of the Lord, get rid of it?
