THE PARABLE OF THE PORCUPINES

THE PARABLE OF THE PORCUPINES

     Have you heard the story of the two porcupines freezing in the winter cold? Shivering in the frigid air, the two porcupines moved closer together to share body heat. But when their sharp spines and quills pricked each other, they moved apart, victims once more of the bitter cold, Soon they felt they must come together once again or freeze to death. But their quills caused too much pain, and once again they parted.

Does the parable of the porcupines remind you at all of anything going on under your own roof? Family members can also suffer from the cold of isolation, and often they learn the pain of drawing close to someone with sharp quills. We desperately need to learn how to live with the barbs that are part of coming together in oneness!

The fact is, intimacy extracts a price. The closer I get to Barbara, the more she becomes aware of who I really am. The more transparent we become, the greater the possibility that she will reject me. But if both of us are committed to each other despite our quills-if we are willing, as Jesus said, to lose our lives instead of saving them-then intimacy awaits us.

NOTE:  This article came from the book Family Life and Marriage Bible by Dennis and Barbara Rainey.

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