Life Lesson of the Lemming
Norway lemmings are cute lil’ fellas, about 5 inches long, related to field mice, inhabiting the arctic regions of Norway and Sweden. They live on grasses and other vegetation, as well as human-cultivated fields. They live in extensive underground burrows that are near water. They build their nests out of hair, moss, grass and lichen. A mature female lemming can birth five babies several times per year.
It is this overproduction of lemmings that stresses the life support system of these little fellas. About every four years, thousands of lemmings will leave their home burrows, gather together in a huge mass of furry fellows, and search for another place to live. They swim streams, rivers, lakes, and they climb mountains. As they journey, their ravenous appetites cause them to eat everything in their path of migration.
Thousands approach the Norwegian seacoast and fling themselves into the sea, trying to swim across; these will all drown. Seeing their fellows fling themselves to their deaths does not stop others from doing the same.
All of us are on a life-journey, similar to these lemmings. We live from day-to-day, consuming earth’s resources to maintain our physical lives. We make friends and relationships along the way. Life is a one-way path to the seacoast of our deaths. We know that it’s coming. We cannot see it up ahead. We do not know when we will be at the precipice, but we have seen the bodies of those who have been there. (See Heb. 10:27.)
Unlike these lemmings, we humans have been given messages from the Creator of life that there is more to our existence than mere physical survival. We are told that there is a permanent, eternal life beyond the seacoast. (See John 14:1, ff.) We who are Christians have believed the message. We have done something about our lives that we ruined. We stopped the sinning that offends our Creator; we confessed the name of Jesus, Whom God gave for our salvation. We were baptized into Him, to bury our dead man of sin.
Although our outer life will die away, the inner, eternal life has been renewed and prepared for the ultimate, irresistible, and certain journey beyond the seacoast of physical life. (II Cor. 4:16)
Our job is to tell the story to fellow life-travellers, so that they might prepare for their ultimate, certain journey over the cliff. (Mtt. 28:18 – 20) Some will listen, for they, too, know that this life is not all there is to human existence. Others plummet on ahead, seeing only their “furry fellows,” consuming as much as they can along the way, buying insurance for events that they hope won’t happen, as well as life insurance for an event they know will happen. The cliff is coming!
Very few will do anything to insure for the inevitable life beyond these shores. Why is that?
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