Articles
Our Loving God
What do sparrows, doves, grackles, golden breasted woodpeckers, western kingbirds, blue jays, and squirrels all have in common? Well, I’m sure there are several things that may come to your mind but on a hot summer day like today, these are the wild animals that are currently co-existing at the water tub I have set out for them in my back yard. It’s amazing to me how they all seem to get along! The birds share their own edge of the tub, take turns drinking, hopping around one another, and occasionally splash around in the water cleaning the dust off their feathers. The birds are not concerned with squirrel resting at the base of the tree not 18” away and there is peace and comfort at the watering hole.
However, things change abruptly whenever I walk out the back door 50 feet away. All of these animals scatter when they hear me or see me coming. Why is that? Don’t they know that I mean them no harm? Don’t they know that I’m the one who provided the bucket and filled it with water? Have I ever done anything to them to question my intentions?
You see, it hasn’t always been that way. Many years ago, before the great flood, all animals and man got along very well! There were no animals considered wild for they were all tame. Consider for a moment this small little verse found in Genesis 9:2 right after Noah and his family left the ark: “The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered.” Animals are afraid of man because God told them to be afraid of man after the flood. This hasn’t changed in the last 4000 years.
Today, I would challenge us all to focus not only on God’s design and benevolence for wild animals, but also on the promises and provisions he has made for all mankind. God loves us so much that he sacrificed his one and only Son so that we could live with Him in HIS presence without fear and in complete comfort and peace for all eternity!
I’m sure glad we have such a wise, loving, and awesome God who cares not only for every part of his creation here on earth, but has prepared a special place just for us in heaven, in his very presence, forever and always!
