The Parable of the Skinks

Yesterday my elder grandson found two skinks in the garden fire pit. He called his brother and me over and we gathered around the pit and admired their beauty. They are magnificent little creatures, with orange heads and vibrant, iridescent blue tails. And they move extremely quickly!

As we watched them, we realized that they were trying to scale the walls of the corrugated fire pit but could not. Time and time again they circled the edge of the pit, attempted to climb it and failed, falling back on the old charcoal remains of the roasting fires of last year’s s’mores’. We decided that we couldn’t just leave them to die, and so we began to discuss how we could get them out.

First, we made ramps at varying angles for them to scurry up. We employed a couple of old, unburned wood scraps and a piece of wire mesh that was just the right size. But despite our best efforts, the skinks circled the walls and avoided the ramps. Next, we tried to get them to walk into a metal fire shovel that was lying nearby. They skillfully avoided that too. As a last-ditch effort, I tried to reach in and grab one, but I was afraid I would crush it in my eagerness to capture its lightning quick little body, and I didn’t succeed, even after several attempts. It looked as if we were just going to have to let nature take its course.

Then finally, and without even discussing it, we came up with another tactic.

My younger grandson placed himself on one side of the skink, the shovel in his hand, and herded it toward me. I used a piece of wood and blocked its exit, scooping it up in my hand. I threw it immediately (and gently) on to the patio. Success at last! It scurried away and quickly disappeared. We employed the same method with the second skink, and it was equally successful. Both grandsons and I remarked that it was teamwork that had finally prevailed.    

I thought about the incident later, wondering if what I had seen was a metaphor for the culture we currently find ourselves living in. If so, are we the skinks, or the rescuers? And what does the container represent?

Parables always have multiple levels of meaning, as does this one. As Jesus of Nazareth said on more than one occasion, “those who have ears, let them hear”.