Hermit Crab Shell Number One

It happened twice. Two different times a hermit crab occupied a shell I wanted while Pilot and I were at the beach recently. This is the same trip I mentioned in a post last month where I wrote about barnacles.

The first day we walked the beach looking for shells, I found a pretty whelk shell. I picked it up, intent on putting it in my shell bag. Before I did, to make sure nothing was living in the shell, I turned it over.

Wouldn’t you know it? A hermit crab was inside. Phooey.

I shook the shell, dipped it into the waves, and even tried to gently remove it from it’s hiding place. Nothing doing. The hermit crab, would not budge.

Reluctantly, I put the hermit crab and his shell back on the sand and walked away.

One thing I should mention is the fact this type shell is not a common shell on this particular beach. More uncommon is the fact it was perfectly intact. Guess that’s why the hermit crab chose the shell.

Hermit Crab Shell Number Two

A couple days later, we walked the other end of the beach.

This day, I looked for shark’s eye shells.

When I spotted an intact shark’s eye, I was excited.

 

Until I turned the shell over to make sure it was empty.

You guessed it.

Another hermit crab.

I didn’t even bother trying to dislodge it. I simply put it down and walked away disgruntled.

I Wanted Those Shells

I wanted both of those shells. I had no real need for them, other than I thought they were pretty.

The hermit crabs living in those shells, however, needed their shells.

There’s a big difference between the want and need.

I could have taken the shells and destroyed the living creature inside to get my way, but I didn’t. For however long the hermit crabs chose to live in their shells, those shells were their homes.

Asserting Our Power

Being more powerful than the hermit crabs, I could have gotten my way. I could have. But I chose not to.

Reminds me a little of King David.

He had everything a man could want, and if he wanted anything more, God reminded David all he had to do was ask.

Yet, David saw Bathsheba’s beauty, had her brought to him, and then arranged for her husband to be killed in battle. God later confronted David through his prophet, Nathan, about David’s sin. It was no accident that when Nathan confronted David, the Shepherd King, that he used the story of a helpless lamb.

Your Turn

Do we ever unjustly assert our authority over a situation or our power over another?

Do we ever see something someone else has, and determine to find a way to take it from them?

That doesn’t necessarily have to be a possession. It could be we determine to take away their joy, sense of worth, peace, dignity, dreams.

Those hermit crabs needed their shells. I did not. I wanted the shells, but I didn’t need them. There’s a big difference.

If the hermit crabs had scurried out of their shells and gone on their merry way to find another shell, that would be different. But they didn’t.

I could have had my way and destroyed the hermit crabs to have their shells, but I didn’t.

It’s all in our choices, is it not?

We can choose to have our way at someone else’s expense, like David did, or we can admire the beauty without demanding it become ours.

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So the Lord sent Nathan the prophet to tell David this story: “There were two men in a certain town. One was rich, and one was poor. The rich man owned a great many sheep and cattle.  The poor man owned nothing but one little lamb he had bought. He raised that little lamb, and it grew up with his children. It ate from the man’s own plate and drank from his cup. He cuddled it in his arms like a baby daughter. One day a guest arrived at the home of the rich man. But instead of killing an animal from his own flock or herd, he took the poor man’s lamb and killed it and prepared it for his guest.”

David was furious. “As surely as the Lord lives,” he vowed, “any man who would do such a thing deserves to die! He must repay four lambs to the poor man for the one he stole and for having no pity.”

Then Nathan said to David, “You are that man!” 2 Samuel 12:1-7a NLT

I wish you well.

Sandy

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You can find my June Inspire a Fire post here. Please stop by and read it.