In his essay, Brennan Manning, sets out to illustrate the “great affection” of Jesus. He does so in three forms. The first is a relayed story of an old man by the Ganges river. The second is a personal experience that Manning had with an Amish family in the Mid-1980s. The final picture is from a play written by an East German pastor entitled The Sign of Jonah. Each one is a compelling picture of love coming from the source of Jesus not out of obligation but out His nature.
For whatever reason I am drawn to the first picture, the old man at the Ganges river. The old man sees a scorpion floating by helplessly in the river. He attempts to rescue the creature and is fiercely bitten twice with the second causing swelling in his hand and a great deal of pain. A passerby chides the old man for attempting to save something that is not only ungrateful but is inflicting suffering upon the man trying to save it. The old man responds, “My friend, just because it is the scorpion’s nature to sting, that does not change my nature to save.”
The correlation between this simple story and the story of Christ on the cross is perhaps predictable and maybe trite on some level. But the scorpions nature to sting reminds me of my human propensity to hurt even that which helps me the most. Thanks be to God that His nature to save is not effected by my nature to sting. We are saved by His affection, His nature.