blog-maryBlog - Joyful Curmudgeon - Blog
A Mary T. Hoffman Commentary from All-Creatures.org

 

"Joyful Curmudgeon" An oxymoron?
No! I see all the beauty of God's creation and I'm joyful.  At the same time, I see all the suffering and corruption going on in the world, and feel called to help expose and end it so that we may have true peace and compassion.

 


The Whale – 13 December 2006
By Mary T. Hoffman

Reading about a rescued female humpback whale’s show of appreciation after her rescue by an environmental group brought to mind the Peaceable Kingdom that the prophet Isaiah describes (Isaiah 11:9) (See also: Isaiah 11:6-8):

9 “They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord As the waters cover the sea.”

The rescue team put their own lives in jeopardy, working for hours to free this whale who was released from a tangle of hundreds of pounds of crab traps and a massive entanglement of lines.

Reading about this I couldn’t help but think how much of their lives humans spend devising ways to trap and kill other creatures. So much time and energy devoted to unnecessary destruction of humans, other animals, and the environment. Humans are capable of devising technological marvels that were beyond anyone’s wildest dreams not too long ago. Yet they persist in stooping to a very low level when it comes to anything spiritual – they refuse to live according to God’s original intent as clearly expressed in Genesis 1:29-31. And they pick and choose where they apply Galatians 5:22-23:

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

To quote from the article:

“When she was free, the divers say she swam in what seemed like joyous circles. She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, and nudged them, pushed gently around, she thanked them. Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives. The guy who cut the rope out of her mouth says her eye was following him the whole time, and he will never be the same.”

She didn’t “high-tail it out of there” – she stayed to show her appreciation. Some humans could learn a lesson from this “lower animal.”

Go on to: Everything in Moderation? - 14 December 2006
Return to: Take Time - 12 December 2006
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