Don’t be like a caterpillar, Dare to be a Daniel!

In the first chapter of the book of Daniel, in the Bible, we notice a young man with an extraordinary faith and belief in a God he never saw or heard, even though it was a God in whom he put all his trust.

This young man just refused to give up his beliefs. Daniel and his three friends were chosen to be educated in the king’s palace, even if they were strangers in captivity. The king commanded that all the young men should eat the type of food he eats, and provided the best care of their times. It would have been very easy for Daniel to be like the others, to eat like a king, but he suspected that the pagan king might have offered that very food to false gods first, as that was the custom in those days. This was a blasphemy before God, and so it was a blasphemy before Daniel. So he chose to spare himself of the king food, and rather eat vegetables.

A funny story would fit in here. It is about a botanist that was exploring the south-American jungle and he found a specific type of caterpillar "marching" in a single line, one behind the other, each one eating the food that her front neighbor ate, but all of them doing the same thing. The botanist decided to make an experiment, and he took one and placed it on the edge of a plate. Immediately, the caterpillar started crawling around the plate, on the edge. The explorer put one more, and then another one, until he completed the circle. The caterpillars continued their journey around the plate, each one following the one ahead. And they did that all the day long. Assuming they might be hungry, the botanist placed their favorite food in the middle of the plate, so the caterpillars can see and smell it, but they continued their journey around that plate following the one ahead, even though their were hungry, and even though there was plenty of food. This situation continued for 7 days and 7 nights and at the end, they all died of starvation even if their favorite food was just a few inches away. Each one of them could have stopped to eat the food and then return to march, but none of them wanted to be different, to get out of the crowd.

Sometimes we are in the same situation. Maybe we know that what are we doing is not good for us, but you can’t separate from your "friends" or maybe even your family, you are afraid they might laugh or mock you.

The result of Daniel’s action; telling everybody that his belief was a good one, led to the election of him and three of his friends as the chosen ones, from a whole crowd of young men, and eventually to the high position they had in the king’s government system.

In the Bible God teaches us, that: "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." Philippians 4:8

We don’t only have to think of these things – we also have to do something positive in this aspect. Jesus Christ, who died on that cross at Calvary, wasn’t crucified for a sin he committed, because, being God’s son, He couldn’t sin. But because we all sinned and deserve to be punished for our sin, Jesus Christ died in our behalf bearing our punishment, because it wasn’t any other way to calm God’s wrath. Bible says: "That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9) and "For, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."" (Romans 10:13)

And just like with those caterpillars, we can ignore the only thing that can spare us from a horrible end. You must stop a minute and think what Jesus has done…for you.