Have you spent more time outdoors in the past year? Camping, hiking, and fishing have exploded as people are looking for available activities. Our own family has spent more quality time in nature exploring and learning. I find myself lost in bird watching, monologuing baby racoons, and identifying animal tracks – like never before.
This summer the nature adventures may have gone next-level when “animals eating human meals” became a focal point (I blame a book I read called a Day in the Life of Squirrels). In a nutshell, think “feeding swans spaghetti”, and planning a taco Tuesday for the opossum.
It’s been such a fun family activity and we have all enjoyed these silly little goals and sightings in nature (the kids especially).
It will come to no surprise that on a challenging day in the current world, my daughter and I were in town and came upon a grey squirrel. He carefully dragged a sweet potato fry out of a carry out container in a garbage can. We followed Grey Squirrel a couple of blocks and watched him make his way to a safe place up in a tree to indulge in his trophy. Walking hand in hand back to the car (after spending way too much time watching Grey Squirrel savor his sweet potato fry), my heart was full. In that moment it felt like God gave us Grey Squirrel as a little nod. He put a distraction in our path and a smile on our face. We couldn’t have planned or planted this ‘animal food goal’ better if we tried! It was something so small but it sure blessed us that day.
I admit that all of this sounds so incredibly goofy (borderline crazy?) but for us, nature and animals have been a source of peace. Getting outside has brought us harmony and a symbol of escape from worldly challenges.
As I began preparing for this week’s passage of the foreshadowing of the Messiah, of course verses 6-9 stood out. It’s a perfect picture of the harmony between the relationships of living things, both humans and animals. Right now, the swans mostly hiss at the idea of a Lady and the Tramp spaghetti moment. But this passage gives me hope that one day, harmony will be restored, as it was originally designed in the garden of Eden. Jesus, in his righteousness, will bring relationships together in a way that only he can. He can heal like no other. He has dominion over all. At his name every knee will bow.
Maybe, just maybe, God wrote this desire on our hearts. He gave us this family activity and space to yearn for harmony. He gave us time to experience his creation, the life he breathed into existence at his very word.
At the same time that he gave us a heart for harmony and unity, he also created us uniquely and each with a different person. Without the perfect wisdom, understanding, might, and fear of the Lord, we can never strike this balance like Jesus can. Until his return, I get to work on relationships here, looking to the Word for examples of love, and patience. Grace and forgiveness. Humility and long suffering.
With our Messiah, he makes a way for us to have perfect harmony in eternity.
What a day that will be! And I’m not talking about animal food goals – but true harmony among all people and all living creatures! The absence of sin and the enemy creating enmity. Perfect. Freeing. Peace.
As we look toward celebrating his birth this month, we can also praise him for the perfect harmony he brings!
Isaiah 11:1-10 The Righteous Reign of the Branch
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide disputes by what his ears hear,
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,
and faithfulness the belt of his loins.
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.
