A Baby Lion and a Little Girl

By Harold Smith

How would you like to ride on the back of a Lion? That's what one little girl did! This story is about a missionary in Africa who caught a little baby lion and brought it home. They brought it up with other tame animals, and that little baby lion grew up to be a big lion, but seemed to have lost the savage nature that's so characteristic of a lion. For several years, it continued to move about in the missionary's homestead, and the little girl would often ride on this lion's back, she really enjoyed riding on that lion's back. One day, this tame lion wandered off into the forest where the wild lions were often heard, and they never saw it again. What do you suppose happened to it? Well, when it got out there among the other lions, it still had the nature of a lion and it just went off into the wild, it was happier, it thought, that way. It went off and did what other lions did, and likely went off killing other little animals and eating them, and even killing people, too - if it could get ahold of them. There's a solemn lesson to be learned about the lion, boys and girls. Our nature is wild and at enmity with God. When we're at home, we might behave ourselves quite well, like that lion did. But when we're out in the wild where the real, sinful nature of men and women is seen, then we, too, will fall into that same way of life. What we need is a new nature. If you could've put the nature of a cow into that lion, then that lion would've stayed at home, it wouldn't have been happy out in the wild. What you need is a new nature, you need to be born again. You need to trust Christ as your Savior. God gives you a new life - a new kind of life - a life that wants to do things that pleases God, a new nature that wants to go in the way of God and not against God. Have you got that new nature? Anybody can get it. Have you come and trusted Christ? The Bible says, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life..." - John 3:36. That gives you a new nature, when you get that everlasting life. You have a new nature and you're a new person. You get it by putting your trust in Christ. Do it today!