By Jessica Brodie
Have you ever seen a wild black bear rather close to you? I have a few times, and it’s such a beautiful experience—beautiful, that is, when relative safety is within reach.
Last weekend, we went to the Great Smoky Mountains, and black bears frequently roam the little neighborhood around the cabin where we stayed. On a couple of mornings while we were there, a mama bear startled me by walking right down the center of the neighborhood’s main street. She swaggered like she owned the place, which she clearly did, acknowledging me with a head nod as if to say, “Hey, weak human. Stay out of my way, but I mean you no harm. And good morning to you.” Following closely behind her were her two older cubs.
She sauntered down the street and nosed in the bushes for a few minutes, then—as my daughter and I watched safely from our Jeep—she casually walked right next to us and down the grassy hill right next to our cabin. Her cubs followed faithfully behind, learning at her feet, watching her every move, following and obeying with rapt attention. One of the cubs fell a little behind, checking something out on his own, and clearly Mama Bear told him to hurry up, because after a minute, he went barreling down the hill right after his mom and brother, as if saying, “Sorry! Wait for me!”
The next day we drove around Cade’s Cove and spotted another mama bear and two cubs, this time in the woods. She was showing her children how to roll over a massive downed tree to look for food, her strong arms moving the log this way and that as branches and leaves shook with might. Again her cubs watched, following along when it was their turn to pitch in.
It reminded me about the people in my own life who I have watched and followed on the Christian journey. I’ve seen them, a bit farther along in their faith, sometimes significantly more, modeling for me how it is to live the Christian life. They’ve shown me how to respond with grace and mercy, how to lead with wisdom, how to have joy even in suffering, how to weather storms with hope. I’ve watched as they’ve stood apart from the crowd, content to walk in Christ rather than the ways of the world, and even if I didn’t know it at the time, they modeled for me what I’m supposed to do, too. Now in turn, I model that for others. Now, it’s my turn to be that “mama bear.”
It’s hard sometimes when we’re walking in the world not to cave to temptation or behave like others around us. It’s hard sometimes not to lean into our own selfish fleshly desires. For me, it’s become a far more natural way of living over time, both out of force of habit and because I’ve trained my mind to do what the apostle Paul advised—to keep my sights on heavenly things (Colossians 3:2), to remember always that I am a citizen of heaven and not of this world (Philippians 3:20). Yet still, it’s hard sometimes.
That’s because there is a war going on all around us. It’s a war between the sinful world and God‘s heavenly kingdom, a war for our souls, a war that evil tries so desperately to win. We know evil will never win, but still … the war persists. For those on God’s team, it requires each of us to do our part in the daily battle.
Sometimes that means looking to godly leaders and mentors in the faith for what to do—and sometimes it means that we must become those godly leaders and mentors ourselves, those older brothers or sisters showing the younger ones how to behave.
Consider how the Lord is calling you to be one of those mentors today. Consider their eyes upon you, even if you don’t know they’re watching.
Remember that for someone, you might well be that mama bear in the wild world, teaching her cubs what to do and how to live right.
Amen, and thanks be to God.
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