Rusty was a Christian too, and being a Christian was important to him, he had meant it when he had asked Jesus into his life but he had difficulty in obeying Jesus all the time. It was fine when he was at home, Sunday School or Church. His face shone and he sang like an angel.

    On Monday at school, however where his friends thought that he was a tough guy and he was a member of the football team, well things were quite different then. He strutted around importantly with an arrogant scowl on his face and was even known to swear from time to time. Rusty was always really sorry when he swore or did something bad. He would remember the times when his Dad would ask him if he would like the Lord Jesus to come back from heaven and see him doing this or hear him saying that. Rusty really wanted to please Jesus, but he didn’t want his mates to know that he was a Christian, they might start calling him Ambrose again.

    Once when one of the gang asked him straight out if he was a Christian, he had mumbled that he was and for a while, when not too many people were watching had even sneaked along to the school Bible Club, but that soon wore off.

    One day during lessons the teacher spoke about a strange creature that interested Rusty immensely. The chameleon was a lizard that sat on a branch waiting for a fat fly or some other tasty morsel to come along. Then, when it saw one to its liking, "Zap!" out would shoot its long sticky tongue and nab its unsuspecting dinner. The interesting thing about the chameleon however was that its skin would change colour to blend with whatever it sat on, so that it could hardly be seen as different from what was around it.

    Rusty thought that it would be good to have one as a pet and he thought about it that whole afternoon and all the way home.

    That night he asked his dad, (who was also interested in strange animals) what he thought about chameleons. He hoped his dad might be interested enough to get one for him.

    Now his dad happened to know all about Rusty’s behaviour at school even though Rusty thought otherwise.

    So when his son asked about the lizard, his dad could see a way to tell Rusty what God thought about his behaviour on Sundays and on Mondays.

    "Rusty," he said, "Getting you a chameleon may be a bit of a problem since we don’t have them in this country, besides which you already have a cat and a dog and we have enough trouble taking care of these don’t we? However, it is an interesting reptile and I’m glad you mentioned it because in some ways it’s like a lot of people we meet every day.

    "Oh!" said Rusty. "How’s that?" His mind wondering what sort of people suddenly changed colour and caught their dinner on sticky tongues.

    "Well," answered his father, "Many people attend church regularly and say that they love the Lord Jesus with all their hearts, but when they are with others who don’t know that they go to church they are quite different people. They forget that God can see them in both places and they think that they have fooled everyone."

    Rusty dropped his head and shuffled his feet.

    "The trouble with them," his Dad went on "is that they want to be like whoever they are with, because they are afraid of what others will think of them. They should be only concerned about what Jesus thinks of them and hardly, if at all concerned about what other people think."

    "In a lot of ways they are like your chameleon, aren’t they? Do you know anyone like that Rusty?"

    Rusty hurried off to his bedroom. He was most miserable. At last he could see how Jesus saw him, and he was really sorry. How disappointed in him Jesus must be. He knelt by his bed and cried. He told Jesus how sorry he was and asked to be forgiven, and from that day onward there was a new Rusty. He was a new person whom everybody liked.

DO YOU KNOW ANYONE LIKE RUSTY?

    The first prayer we should pray, is to tell Him that we are truly sorry for the wrong things we do. That we want Him to come and live in our hearts and help us to do the things that please Him.

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