ABC News caught my attention yesterday with a story. It seems the Belgian government is paying for the training of rats to sniff out landmines. Moreover, the training is working. Some rats are proving to be more effective than dogs.
Trainers need anywhere from six months to a year to instruct the rats on developing their sense of smell and fulfilling their tasks. Furthermore, the rats’ teachers are finding the rodents to be easy to work with. One notes, "They are very friendly, without being needy. When you work with a dog, you have to say, 'Good boy!' A rat doesn't need that." Whatever the teachers are doing, it’s working.
Rats discover approximately five landmines a day in the country of Mozambique. More than 1, 000, 000 acres of land were returned to their owners last year because of the rats’ work.
Imagine that! The rat, the scourge of Mankind, now using his unique ability, given by his Creator, to save humans.
Jesus once told his disciples who were inclined to worry, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”
If I may take Jesus’ encouragement on a tangent, look at the rats of the earth. If your Heavenly Father has gifted them to serve creation in incredible ways, don’t you think he has likewise gifted you? After all, you, as a human being, are more valuable than rats.
Retain this fact in your mind—God has created you for a purpose. How has God gifted you to serve in His created world?
