Sixty-seven giant land snails from Africa were stopped at LAX. Packed in picnic baskets, these snails, which grow to be eight inches long and five inches wide, were brought in for human consumption. But, there is a problem with these mollusks (more than one problem, as far as I’m concerned). As the state of Florida can attest, these snails are invasive, carrying a parasite that can give humans meningitis. They also consume over 500 kinds of plants—even paint and stucco off houses. Newser reports that these snails were turned over to the USDA and incinerated. You just don’t mess around with snails!

I am amused at the thought of stopping 67 giant African snails at the airport. I close my eyes and visualize security agents running through the airport with weapons drawn yelling “Freeze! Don’t move or I’ll shoot!”

Perhaps, there is a lesson in this for us—destruction does not have to come quickly or without warning. In an age of 24-hour news cycles, we are more capable than ever to be in sync with what is happening around us. Still, we are taken by surprise by unexpected events—like a tornado or a bombing.

The second coming of our Lord will be both sudden and unexpected, “just like a thief in the night” (1 Th. 5:2). But of the day and hour of His coming “no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone” (Mt. 24:36). Jesus is coming and we must be in a state of constant preparation.

Regarding such preparation, we must acknowledge the slow progress, but deceptively destructive power of sin. Apostasy is unlike the second coming in that it seldom occurs “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Cor. 15:52). Falling away from Jesus usually takes place at a snail’s pace—one bad decision or misplaced priority at a time. “No reason to take action,” we reason, “I can take care of that problem any time.” But the deceptive nature of sin slowly works to destroy the soul. As surely as night follows day, “A little leaven leavens the whole lump” (1 Cor. 5:6). Sin is an invasive, death-rendering disease of the soul. You don’t mess around with sin!

Give sin its death-sentence. Consider yourselves “to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rm. 6:11). Do it today.