“God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.” -Genesis 1:25
“May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works.” — Psalm 104:31
“…the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” – 1 Samuel 16:7
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
Like many of you, I have stayed home on this icy morning. I’ve been working from my laptop at the kitchen table, looking out at the somewhat dreary and very chilly backyard.
I take great delight in the industrious birds and squirrels out there that never seem to let the inclement weather keep them from visits to the birdbath and feeder. (I had to break away ice from the birdbath this morning and pour some hot water in as well to keep it open.) Now that I’ve gotten these critters somewhat reliant on the feeder and bath, I really make an effort to see that they do not need to go without for very long.
I’ve been asked if I’m not afraid that I’m also feeding some of the less cuddly wildlife that can wander through our backyards. While I don’t necessarily want to be attracting pests into the yard, I don’t really begrudge any of them finding some nourishment in the scraps that the squirrels miss. (They don’t leave MUCH behind!)
The birds and squirrels add so much to my enjoyment of the backyard, because I find them cute and cuddly. But the truth is that in God’s eyes every single creature is beautiful.
Those critters that we tend to label as “pests” and “varmints” are only so because they impinge on our lives in ways that we find inconvenient. They are all pursuing their own God-given objectives of flourishing and procreating within God’s large plan for the world. We need to remember that none of them are “bad” just because they don’t fit within our plans for the space that was once theirs alone. None of them are “ugly” or “nasty” simply because they don’t fit into our narrow categories of beauty.
Of course, the same is true for the people that we meet as we go about our daily walks. There is no person in the world that has ever been so nasty or unattractive that God has stopped loving them. While there are individuals and even entire societies that we may need to think of as threatening and even dangerous, we should remember that God loves them as well. While we may need to set boundaries with such problematic people, we must simultaneously remember that God would ultimately ask us to not seek to harm them or to keep them from receiving their due of the earth’s resources for their survival.
Whether we are feeding wildlife in the yard, providing nourishment for impoverished and homeless people on our streets, feeding refugees or sending aid to disaster-stricken regions of the world, we must remember that not just the pleasant and attractive animals and people deserve our care. God loves each of us, even when we have not been particularly “attractive” in our actions; and we need to remember that the lenses that we view God’s creation with are not the same lenses that God sees that same world through.
Peace,
Pastor Layne