The Bear & the Agnostic

One lovely morning, an agnostic was walking through the woods admiring nature’s beautiful surroundings and many creatures.

He said to himself, “What resplendent trees! What mighty rivers! What elegant animals and insects!” and he thought “Mother Nature sure made an awesome and wondrous world. I’m sure glad I don’t need to believe or trust in some ridiculous, mythical, invisible God for anything like this. Evolution made this, not some Creator God anyway!”

While he was walking along the river, he heard the rustling of leaves in the bushes behind him. He turned to look, and saw a 9-foot-tall-1200-pound-HUGE-man-eating-hungry-grizzly bear, growling, charging towards him full speed knocking down little bushes and kicking up the the turf as it bolted straight to him. 

Screaming in utter terror, he ran for his life, as fast he could, up the rugged, lengthy, earthy path. Looking over his shoulder, the hungry bear was closing in on him. Looking over his shoulder again, the bear was even closer! He suddenly tripped and fell on the ground.

And as he frantically rolled over to pick himself up, the angry bear’s gigantic, terrifying shadow fell upon his now pale with fear face. The growling bear stood up on its hind legs!

With a loud, menacing, ear-deafening roar, it pinned him down with its left paw and as it raised its terrifying, clawed right paw to strike, the agnostic screamed at the top of his voice: “Oh God please help me!!!”

Time Stopped.
The bear froze.
The forest was silent.
Everything stood still.
The sky opened.

A bright white light shone upon the man, and a thundering voice came out of the sky. “You doubt Me Jesus Christ all these years, as a proud agnostic. You’ve refused to follow, love or serve Me, in spite of the fact you know better. Do you expect Me to help you out of this predicament now?”

The LORD continued, “Nevertheless, since I am the Merciful, even though you don’t believe or trust in Me, I am loving, kind and here for every being on this earth. I will give you ONE wish to help you and that is all.”

The agnostic looked directly into the light and felt relieved. “Well, Jesus, I still don’t really want to believe in You and it would be hypocritical of me to suddenly ask You to treat me as a believer now, but perhaps you could make the BEAR a believer and believe in You?” (He was desperately hoping this would get him out of this precarious situation)

The LORD Jesus then said “Let be it done, according to your wish.”

The bright light vanished. The sounds of the forest resumed. The hungry bear dropped its right paw that was about to strike the agnostic, and oddly brought both its paws together, bowed its head & prayed:

(Thank You God for this meal I’m about to receive!)

[The Moral of the Story?]

As the old saying goes, “There are no atheists in foxholes.”

Don’t wait for calamity to strike before you start living for the Lord. Do it now! (And also, if you are hiking in bear country, you might want to carry some bear spray too).