Yesterday I noticed something extremely unusual. A fox was sitting on the front steps of a country church building. I parked my car near the fox, but he just looked at me as if he did not have a care in the world. Even after I got out of the car, he showed no fear whatsoever.

I, however, was a bit afraid. A fox that shows no fear of humans is likely sick, and perhaps dangerous.

My friend Karen lives right across the road from the church, and I wanted her to know about the situation, so I knocked on her door. She informed me that there was a family of foxes that had taken up residence near the church building, and that they were not afraid of people.

It would have been good, for their own sake, for the foxes to have a healthy fear of humans.

In the same way, it is good for humans to have a healthy fear of the Lord. Those who don’t fear God—well, there’s just something wrong with that.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”—Proverbs 1:7.