Getting Down and Dirty

Have you ever seen a chinchilla? They are one of the cutest animals God ever made! Their heads kinda look like a mouse's, their bodies resemble a rabbit's, and their long puffy tails look like a squirrels. Chinchillas are naturally found in the Andes Mountains in South America, so they prefer dry and cool weather.

One of the most unbelievable things about chinchillas is their fur. If you have ever touched one, you know exactly what I'm talking about. They have fifty or more hairs coming out of one follicle in their skin. (To give you an idea of what that's like, we humans only have one hair per follicle). Their fur is so soft and fluffy!

Chinchillas aren't super aggressive, but they do have one funky way of defending themselves. If an enemy grabs onto its fur, the chinchilla will actually release that fur from its body in order to get away.

Anyone who has a pet chinchilla will tell you that the most entertaining thing about owning one is the dust bath. In order to keep a chinchilla's fur clean, you can't wash it down with shampoo and a hose like you would a dog. A chinchilla cleans itself with dust. The dust is superfine powdery stuff made especially for chinchillas. Every now and then, you take a bowlful of chinchilla-cleaning dust and set it down near the rodent. He'll very happily climb into that container and start flipping around and rolling around in it like it's the best thing that's ever happened to him. The dust gets into his fur and cleans all the oil and yucky stuff that gets in there. It's funny that dust - really fine dirt - gets the chinchilla clean!



When you want to be clean from something bad you've done, the only way to do that is by telling Jesus about your sin and accepting his forgiveness, just like David did in today's Bible verse. God has forgiveness for anyone who wants it. We just have to want to jump in and give it a whirl!

"Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow." ~ Psalm 51:7