{"id":48280,"date":"2003-09-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2003-09-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/cuddly-bear-conceals-dangerous-weapon\/"},"modified":"2003-09-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2003-09-08T00:00:00","slug":"cuddly-bear-conceals-dangerous-weapon","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/cuddly-bear-conceals-dangerous-weapon\/","title":{"rendered":"Cuddly Bear Conceals Dangerous Weapon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After a relaxing, week-long summer vacation in Florida with their 10-year-old son, Robert and Angela Barry of Grove City, Ohio, left for the airport to return home to Ohio. Just before they left, a young girl staying at the Barrys&#39; hotel showed up at their room and gave their son a teddy bear as a gift. As they went through security at Orlando International Airport, the teddy bear went through the x-ray machine like the rest of their luggage, and the Barrys learned that appearances can fool you. A Transportation Security Administration worker noticed the outline of a gun inside the bear. Opening up the bear, airport security workers found a loaded .22 caliber handgun stuffed inside.<\/p>\n\n<p><em class=\"citation\">The Miami Herald<\/em> later reported that the gun had been reported stolen in California. Robert Johnson, a TSA spokesman in Washington, D.C., said the incident &quot;underscores the need to screen everyone and everything no matter how innocent the people or their belongings may appear.&quot;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3428,3731,3790,3950,3952,3954,4199,5140],"tax_ctp_topics":[396],"class_list":["post-48280","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-appearance","tax_ctp_tags-danger","tax_ctp_tags-discernment","tax_ctp_tags-false-doctrine","tax_ctp_tags-false-prophets","tax_ctp_tags-false-teachers","tax_ctp_tags-hypocrisy","tax_ctp_tags-testing"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cuddly Bear Conceals Dangerous Weapon - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/cuddly-bear-conceals-dangerous-weapon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cuddly Bear Conceals Dangerous Weapon - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After a relaxing, week-long summer vacation in Florida with their 10-year-old son, Robert and Angela Barry of Grove City, Ohio, left for the airport to return home to Ohio. Just before they left, a young girl staying at the Barrys&#039; hotel showed up at their room and gave their son a teddy bear as a Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/cuddly-bear-conceals-dangerous-weapon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/cuddly-bear-conceals-dangerous-weapon\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/cuddly-bear-conceals-dangerous-weapon\/\",\"name\":\"Cuddly Bear Conceals Dangerous Weapon - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2003-09-08T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2003-09-08T00:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/cuddly-bear-conceals-dangerous-weapon\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/cuddly-bear-conceals-dangerous-weapon\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/cuddly-bear-conceals-dangerous-weapon\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Cuddly Bear Conceals Dangerous Weapon\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Cuddly Bear Conceals Dangerous Weapon - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/cuddly-bear-conceals-dangerous-weapon\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Cuddly Bear Conceals Dangerous Weapon - CT Pastors","og_description":"After a relaxing, week-long summer vacation in Florida with their 10-year-old son, Robert and Angela Barry of Grove City, Ohio, left for the airport to return home to Ohio. 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