A story of long ago places Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus with letters permitting him to capture Christians and take them to Jerusalem. On his way there, he had his encounter with Jesus whose followers he had been persecuting. Blinded by a light from heaven, Saul was transported into Damascus. He remained sightless and did not eat or drink for three days. In short, Saul soon received his sight and his assignment to bear the Lord's name to the "...Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel." Immediately he began preaching that Christ is the Son of God. In order to perform those duties, Saul had to leave Damascus as the "...Jews took council to kill him." Saul eventually became known as Paul, a mighty man of God.
Since that time and over the centuries, many men and women have met Christ on their respective roads to their own personal Damascuses. Great numbers of them like Saul went on to do mighty works in the name of the Lord. Unfortunately, another group came into existence, those, for the purposes of this writing, who live in some sort of fossilized form as the Dinosaurs of Damascus. To qualify as one of these types, any who went to Damascus subsequent to their personal encounter with God arrived in their respective Damascuses to pick up their assignments. What happened is that they failed to depart with their directions from on high concerning their own contributions relative to their part in the Great Commission.
Consequently, for all who landed in Damascus and proceeded to follow the new plan that God had for each person, when each returned to pass through Damascus on their way to other places, they would have encountered those who remained there fossilized. Among the dinosaurs of even these modern times can be found Petrosaurus Rex. People with the call on their lives comparable to that of Peter, froze there in the rocks rather than going on to be great men or women of God just like Peter. But there they remain as rock formations, refusing God's call. Others, once in Damascus, get into doubt about all of their experience with Christ, wanting to place their hand in his side much like Thomas before leaving the city. These are the Thomasideus Plexicus, those who could have gone on to lead many into the kingdom of God. Certainly, many more become entrapped in the sediments which settle upon them as a result of the heavy traffic through Damascus.
For certain others known as Saulosaurus Maximi have had an equivalent call to that of Saul upon their lives but lost sight of God's plan. Some modern day stuck-in-Damascus types of dinosaurs could be the Couch-a-lopigus Flat-out-ikus, those who lie down on couches with their only visions being televisions. Indeed more and more of these modern- day dinosaurs are being unearthed. That said, for each dinosaur found in Damascus, there will be countless fewer souls in heaven as they preferred to lie under sedimentation rather than relay the good news about salvation.