I tried to find an answer, but I couldn’t.  Apparently, one actually can’t find everything online. 

I asked the internet to provide the percentage of animals that rely upon some form of camouflage.  No answer was provided.  Lots of information on camouflage, but no percentages.

Therefore, I will provide my best guess and speculate that at least 90 percent of creatures in the animal kingdom are endowed by God with some form of “blending in.”  And that guess may very well be on the low side.

Whether mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, fish, or insect … almost every creature has some natural coloration that helps hide it.  Both predator and prey have life-and-death reasons to be difficult to detect.

The National Geographic website provides this concise definition: 

“Camouflage … is a defense or tactic that organisms use to disguise their appearance, usually to blend in with their surroundings. Organisms use camouflage to mask their location, identity, and movement. This allows prey to avoid predators, and for predators to sneak up on prey.”

Technically, there are four different types of camouflage in the animal kingdom.  AnimalSpot.net describes them:

1. Cryptic coloration: It is the most familiar type of camouflage where the color of the animal’s body blends with the environment they live. E.g., chameleons, whose green bodies make them merge into their green surroundings.
   
   
2. Disruptive coloration: In this form the contrasting patterns on the animal’s body, break their outline creating an illusory effect. This helps them merge with the environment well. E.g., jaguar, lions.
   
   
3. Self-decoration: This process is mostly used by invertebrates who adorn themselves with many things found in their habitats, like algae, leaves, and mosses, to escape their natural enemies. E.g., sea urchins and sloths.
   
   
4. Disguise: Animals disguise themselves in their surroundings by taking the shape, texture, or color of the inanimate objects around them. E.g., a stick insect looks like a twig or stick, making it hard for its enemies to spot them on a forest floor.

Of course, human hunters also utilize camouflage – all four kinds, to some degree – in their quest for game.  As do soldiers in the field, where blending into their environment can be critical to the success of their mission … not to mention their personal welfare.

Sometimes it’s important for humans to blend in; sometimes it’s crucial we don’t.  When it comes to our lives in this world, God wants us as his followers … (His redeemed!  His children!) … to stand out from the rest!

And here’s the challenge: what our Lord specifically states he desires from us is specifically opposite to what our sinful nature desires.  We are much more comfortable – we actually feel much “safer” – when we blend in with those around us.  That way we aren’t so easily noticed.

But God doesn’t want camouflaged Christians.

Jesus urges us to be “the light of the world” … shining openly and brightly before others so “that they may see [our] good deeds and glorify [our] Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14-16).

Similarly, the Holy Spirit moves Paul to write, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.  Live as children of light  (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.  Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them” (Ephesians 5:8-10).

This is much easier acknowledged than accomplished.

Why do we live for Jesus … openly and obviously … even though this means we will stand out?  Even though it will probably bring us some negative attention?  Perhaps even outright persecution?

Not just because the Lord tells us to do so.  But especially because of what the Lord has done for us!

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.  Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:1-2).

Or as Peter reminded persecuted Christians in his first letter: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:9-10).

How good and gracious is our God!  How much Jesus suffered for us because he was different!  How much he accomplished for us through his suffering!  He is our motivation to be blatantly open about our allegiance!

No, our goal is not to hide from the world … but to guide the world to their Savior.  And blending in doesn’t allow us to be very effective beacons in the darkness.  So, with God’s help, we shine brightly for him!

That makes us un-camouflaged Christians!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mark 8
³⁴ Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ³⁵ For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. ³⁶ What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? ³⁷ Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? ³⁸ If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

John 15
¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. ¹⁷ This is my command: Love each other.

¹⁸ “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. ¹⁹ If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. 

2 Corinthians 5
¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. ²¹ God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Galatians 1:10
 ¹⁰ Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Galatians 2
²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 

1 Peter 2
¹¹ Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. ¹² Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

1 Peter 3
¹³ Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? ¹⁴ But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” ¹⁵ But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord.

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, ¹⁶ keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. 

¹⁷ For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. ¹⁸ For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. 

1 Peter 4
⁴ They are surprised that you do not join them in their reckless, wild living, and they heap abuse on you. ⁵ But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 

¹² Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. ¹³ But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. ¹⁴ If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. ¹⁵ If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. ¹⁶ However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. 

1 John 2
¹⁵ Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. ¹⁶ For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. ¹⁷ The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.