LIZARD HIDE-N-SEEK

Yes, it's what it sounds like.

Makes for a good story, though.

Wanna hear it?

It started off innocently enough.  "The Hub" was outside working in the backyard, and I thought I'd go keep him company.

Things were fine when I was outside.  It was when I decided to come back in the house that the shenanigans started.

We have a door from the backyard that enters into our main room.  And in the mountains, there's no "demilitarized zone" between yard and house – no safe patio break.  It goes from outside yard (mountain wildness) right into house (domesticated abode).

As soon as I opened the door, I noticed a tiny little lizard run over the door jamb – right into the main room of our house.

OK, yes, I did say tiny – he was only about 2 inches long.  So, he didn't really warrant an *eek* from me.  (A totally different scenario than the time I chased a HUGE foot-long lizard out of my house down the hill…)

So, I wasn't scared of Tiny Mr. Lizard.  Just more panicky about how we were going to get him back outside.  We, of course, meaning "The Hub".

My big brave Reptile Hunter walked into the house to give chase.  I stayed outside and looked at the safari through a window.  Man, that little guy could move!

"The Hub" gave a valiant effort trying to trap him.  He scooted away fast, but then promptly reversed direction when cornered.  I saw "The Hub" chase him into the corner…

Oh no, I thought…

I came in and "The Hub" said to me, "I don't know where he went."

I did.

"Uh, hon, I think he went down through the heat register into the heat duct."

Yeah.

"Well, he'll probably come out later."

That was the Great Herpetologist's assessment of the situation (as he went back outside).  It wasn't good enough for me.

So, I waited a minute or two, then went over and looked at the register. There, peeking back at me from inside the grate, were two tiny little beady eyes.  I ran outside again to get "The Hub"…

"I see him," I said.  "He's in the register."

Of course, just as we came back inside, the little guy was poking his head out of the register, preparing to make a hasty exit.  And, of course, when he saw us, he ran back into the duct.  This time, I couldn't see him.

Oh, but I could hear him.

Scratchy, scratchy.

We took the register off the duct, and Tiny Mr. Lizard was nowhere to be seen.

"The Hub" wasn't particularly worried.

I conjured up several dire outcomes:

The tiny lizard would grow up into a big lizard and crawl over me in my sleep some night.

The tiny lizard would grow up into a big lizard and chew through the brand-new ducting.

The tiny lizard would NOT grow up into a big lizard because he would die in the brand-new ducting.

The tiny lizard would NOT grow up into a big lizard because we would fry him when we turned on the heating next time.  (Does fried lizard smell anything like frogs' legs???)

Sigh.

"The Hub" figured that he was too small to climb out by himself – the ducting was too slippery.  So he put a towel down the *chute* in case the little guy needed something to grab on to.

We waited…no show.

Then I had the brilliant idea to turn the fan on.  Maybe we could "blow" him out, I reasoned.

So, we turned on the fan and waited.

"The Hub" went back outside.  I waited some more, and then went over to check the towel.  Nope, didn't see him.  But then…

AHA!

Almost completely camouflaged in the rug was Tiny Mr. Lizard clinging to the side of the opening in the floor.

I rushed back outside (yet again) to get the Reptile Wrangler.  This time he gently poked the little guy with a stick, and kindly prodded him out into the open.  The lizard was cold because of the air from the fan, so he moved very slowly.

"The Hub" successfully caught the tiny little booger.  I have to admit, up close and personal he was really cute.

We re-released him into the wild, where I'm sure he'll grow up into a big lizard.  Maybe he'll come back and say "Hi" someday.

You gotta know there's a lesson in this, don't you?

I pondered later how much effort we had put into chasing down one tiny little lizard.  We did an exhaustive search, capture, and re-locate mission. Why?  Well, because we knew that though he was very, very small, Mr. Tiny Lizard could potentially cause some big problems.

Isn't it like that with sin?

Especially those tiny sins, that don't seem very threatening.  

Little doubts.

Small white lies.

A tidbit of gossip.

Harmless flirtations.

You know what I'm talking about…

We just don't think they're that big a deal.  We figure that they'll work themselves out sooner or later.  No harm, no foul.  So often, we don't even bother chasing them down.

But small sins can eventually cause some big problems.

Tiny lizards are pests – potential home-wreckers.

Tiny sins are potential heart-wreckers.  They can wreak havoc on our spiritual ducting.

So we do well to hunt them down and capture them and re-locate them outside!


Do you have any *tiny sin* that needs to be hunted down and removed from your life?


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