I told my wife this morning, “you’re not the only one that hears from God in the shower”. She laughed out loud.
Nature has so much to teach us about the character of God but if we look real closely we can also see the fall of man. I was peering out the window while in the shower this morning. Yes, we have a window in the shower, at eye height in case you were worried a bit. There on the ground near our bird feeders was a mourning dove making his way around the plethora of nuts and seeds I tossed out there last night. He was in bird heaven. Fat, dumb, and happy. Like most doves look while chowing down on the delicacies of the day. Suddenly another dove lands in the tiny plot of ground assigned to this feast. My meek, fat, dumb, and happy dove suddenly acted like his whole life was being threatened and launched out into full attack mode on this unsuspecting peer. Off he went, and parity suddenly arrived again. All was well in the dove’s world. Then like something out of a bad dream another dove dive-bombed into the feeding frenzy and my little guy launched beak first into action. A take no prisoners all-out assault. He won again, and the other guy headed for the hills, or nearby tree in this case.
Then it struck me. That selfish little bugger, he’s just like me. If anybody messes with my pile of stuff, boy are they in trouble. And in a bird’s world what else is there but eating, pooping, sleeping and making more little birds? Don’t get near my territory, or my woman, or my career, or my stuff, or my wounded parts. I’m having none of that.
But here’s the thing, we can re-capture the life that God had always intended for us. Remember the greatest commandment and then the second one? In Mark 12 Jesus said, “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (ESV) We were intended to live in full harmony with each other and even ourselves. Love covers it all.
The dove showed me that, after the fall, even the bird population, lost that harmony. I could only imagine that in the garden that dove would have welcomed his buddies with open wings. Heck, he may even have picked up a nut and fed it to him before sharing the real estate with the rest of his fine-feathered friends. But then sin ruled the day and has ever since.
Whether the mourning dove shooing off the competition, the cheetah attacking the giraffe or us gossiping about that annoying individual, we’ve all fallen to the ravages of sin.
But God, in His infinite wisdom provided a way back. Whatever ails us, whatever happened to us along the way that set up the anger, disdain, and disharmony of man, Jesus can and will provide the healing necessary to find freedom.
Love rules the day and always will. There’s plenty for all of us, including the hungry dove.
