TRAGEDY AND LOSS
TRAGEDY AND LOSS
This morning (June 09 2018) I opened the curtains to the sliding glass doors that lead out onto my back patio. I have two beautiful hanging fuchsia baskets decorating my patio. In one of the fuchsia baskets is a Junco nest. The baby birds are only a few days old. I have been watching the progress of this wonderful miracle of nature as the parents built the nest, the eggs were laid, and the chicks were hatched. As I have for the last couple of weeks, I looked out through the glass doors to observe the activity on the patio. But instead of seeing the parents’ fliting about caring for the growing babies, everything was still, way too still; and I saw that there were fuchsia plant pieces strewn here and there.
When I saw the mess on my patio my heart sank. I knew something bad had happened. I went out onto the patio and took down the hanging basket that had the nest in it. The baby birds were gone. The babies were only days old and had no feathers yet, so they didn’t fly away. Something terrible had taken place. I felt so violated. Even though I am not the mommy bird I still have had an emotional investment in the wonderful course of nature that has been unfolding in my flower basket. It has brought me such joy to partake in this event as an onlooker and even as a cheerleader as I have watched with excitement how the parents cared for the babies with such doting commitment.
Devastated by the sudden ugly turn of events, I felt tears welling up in my eyes; and I mourned the loss of the baby birds. I felt bitter towards the cat who had caused this tragedy. And yes, because of our video security camera I know that it was a cat who was responsible for what happened.
I was so mad at that cat. But I couldn’t bring myself to hate it. My husband agreed with my thoughts about the cat. He said to me after I told him what I found on the back patio: “The cat was just doing what a cat does. He doesn’t know any better.”
In this fallen world, animals don’t live in the original state of harmony with the rest of creation as it was when they were first created in the Garden of Eden. When sin came into the world everything changed. The cat doesn’t know his true identity anymore. He can’t and won’t until Jesus returns.
We need Jesus to return but He is longsuffering in His return because He is giving the world more time for people to come to the knowledge of the message of the cross and to accept Jesus as their Savior and to become a part of the family of God (See 2 Peter 3:9).
The Bible says that all of creation groans waiting for the sons of God to manifest, to come into alignment with the Word and will of God, and to know their true identity as the children of God. When that happens then things shall be made right again and creation will be delivered from the bondage of corruption and cruelty (See Romans 8:19-22).
So we need to get out there and get the message of the cross into the hearts of those who will listen!!
In the meantime, I choose to forgive the cat for what it did because being angry and bitter will not affect a change on what happened, but it will effect a negative change in me. I refuse to carry that negative emotion around.
Today the focus of my writing started with the violation against the lives of the baby birds. But I don’t want to end my writing there because there is another connected thought I must mention. Violations happen to animals and humans alike—victims of a fractured, sin-filled, and cruel world. People, too, will do things they should not when they don’t understand and walk in their true identity as sons and daughters of God.
No matter what, we must forgive and let healing begin its work.
In contrast, if we are to keep the unforgiveness and hang on to anger and say and do things that are motivated by that anger, then we are compounding the situation. Unforgiveness keeps us victims of the violation that took place, and it further adds to the victimization of the one (already a victim because he/she does not know his/her true identity as a son or daughter of God) that did the actions that devastatingly impacted us. Unforgiveness can also create additional victims as others are impacted by the negative domino effect. That’s just not right. The chain reaction has to stop—for ourselves, for others, for the world.
I choose to forgive. I choose to come into alignment with the Word and will of God and to know my true identity as a child of God. And, I choose to be a part of speaking the message of the cross to the lost souls in this sin-filled and cruel world.
