An alligator in a cage: the problem with freewill
I was recently at a place that takes in reptiles that people could no longer keep as pets and one special resident was an alligator.
This poor creature was kept in too small a cage for 27 years. Its body and snout were deformed by the tiny space it was kept in for its whole life. When it got to the rescue, it was placed in a larger cage. The creature was so broken by its years in confinement that it would not move from the cage entrance that was similar in size to its original cage. Even though it had a much larger enclosure it could venture into, the tiny space seemed safe and familiar.
The staff spent years slowly acclimating the alligator to its larger cage. They had to positively reinforce and bribe the alligator to get any movement from its enclosed area. And still the cage was smaller than typical for an alligator of that size. But the alligator was still showing signs, years later, of stress in the larger cage. Not only is that alligator not living in a natural environment that such a creature is meant to inhabit, but it’s stressed out by any space larger than its own body.
If given the choice, this alligator would choose to go back to the little box it was raised in that broke it and hurt it and stopped it from being a healthy happy wild alligator.
Now, I believe that someday God is going to heal that alligator. It’s not going to get what it would choose, the tiny box that it was raised in that damaged it. He won’t honor a choice made by a hurt, abused creature. There would be nothing good or kind in honoring that choice. That choice, though perhaps freely made, would only lead to more suffering and pain. No, if God is good, He will heal it to the point that it would joyfully choose to swim in a swamp and be the creature he created it to be.
And are we all so different from an alligator in cage?