Thought for Today
Genesis 1:21 So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good.
Leviticus 11:20 All winged insects that walk upon all fours are detestable to you.
Luke 12:7 But even the hairs of your head are all counted. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.
Luke 12:27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.
I killed a tick this morning. It is officially tick season in New England. Thankfully, the tick I killed was of the larger variety. Here, the most feared ticks are the deer ticks which are very tiny but carry Lyme disease.
Right now, I’m wondering “Why?” Why did God create ticks, beetles, ants, spiders and all the other life forms which swarm, fly, creep and crawl? Even the most cursory examination of the food chain and the purposes served by all of those creatures reveals that God’s Creation is mind-bogglingly complex. I understand that many (most? all?) of these creatures essentially serve as a living mechanism to clean up the detritus of life, the refuse of our living world. But, couldn’t God have simply created a robo-vacuum from the get-go?
I was raised in the pre-home air conditioning era along the Texas Gulf Coast. I still have nightmares about hot summer nights, sprawled across the sheet in my bed, spread-eagle to minimize body heat . . . and listening to the incessant drone of crickets, the massively irritating whine of mosquitoes that had found the miniscule hole in the window screen, and the hooting of the owls in the trees. The only air stirring was from the 8” oscillating fan which always seemed to be locked in one position . . . focused on my brother’s bed, never on mine. All of these years later, I still hate the sound of crickets.
Why is our world so complex? Was it true in Jesus’ time that five sparrows were sold for two pennies? And, yet “Luke 12:6 . . . not one of them is forgotten in God's sight.” God created life, all life. Then “Genesis 2:7 the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.” Our ancestors-in-the-faith understood that life itself, like our salvation, is a gift from God. Human life, animal life, plant life . . . even insect life is a gift from God. Our living, human life is literally the breath of our Creator God.
It is incumbent on us as Christians to honor life. Does that mean that I should not have killed that tick? Sometimes very serious questions seem silly. But, the fact is that we should never carelessly end any life. We do know that "Genesis 1:26 God said, Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth." And, “Genesis 2:16 the LORD God commanded the man, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden.’”
Creation is truly complex. Galaxies, suns, planets in abundance. Our own planet teeming with life in almost every imaginable form and even some almost unimaginable forms. For us, it is easy to comprehend and understand some of the complexity. Some folks can even understand some of the most complex of the details. The 20th century and now the 21st century have and are witnessing great scientific discoveries. We live in fascinating times.
Through it all, we need to always remain aware that we are God’s creation, God’s creatures. We must honor life as a gift from our Creator God. Irrespective of whether or not we understand the purpose of a particular life form, we must never carelessly or thoughtlessly take that life.
I posed the question in terms of killing a tick. I am comfortable with killing that tick because all ticks potentially carry life-threatening diseases. Equally, I am comfortable with killing mosquitoes for the same reason. I’m comfortable with reaping fruits, vegetables and plants to eat. But whenever we take life, we should do so reverently and with thanks to our Creator God for that life.
Stay safe, thank God for life itself, trust God,
Pastor Ray