Catching Pigs

Submitted by Alan Marsden on Tue, 06/08/2019 - 00:01

Living on a farm provides so many homespun illustrations of spiritual life. Here in New South Wales, wild pigs roam the Bush. They are considered a pest, preying on lambs, wallowing in precious water dams and damaging fencing. Boars are known to attack honest folk, so farmers generally feel justified in reducing their numbers. How does one capture a fearsome beast which hides in the day and is tough enough to kill dogs and men? One simply makes a trap. In this contraption, one deposits grain and molasses, foodstuffs which the pigs’ acute sense of smell can easily detect. Indeed, their snouts can detect food up to seven miles away and twenty-five feet underground.

Once caught, the pigs are placed in a shady pen, fattened up for market day or a big family barbecue. I sympathise with farmers who need to protect their farms and for whom these feral pigs provide supplementary income. Yet I also rather like the idea of pigs running wild, enjoying the hills and forests. Were the pigs’ desire for grain and sticky molasses not so great, they’d seldom be caught. The wise farmer knows what the pigs want, and gives them a little taste thereof. Unfortunately for them, this leads to a pen and the butchers’ shop. 1 Timothy 6:9 says ‘But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction’ (ESV).

What traps you? How is your trap baited?