March 10, 2011

Job 39
I feel like I’ve just watched an episode of Wild Kingdom. Mountain goats, wild donkeys, wild oxen, ostriches, horses and hawks are all awesome creatures. I remember the regular opening scene of one nature show that always showed the two rams who ran together and butted heads. Who could ever withstand that kind of shock? It culturally probably paved the way for Dodge motor company to develop the slogan for Dodge trucks, “Ram tough.” I remember being told by grandpa to stay out of the pasture that a certain bull was in. I did not need to be told more than once. The bull was huge, and I had no desire to face him down. I wonder what a wild ox is like. I have not met any wild donkeys, other than a few democrats that I know. I remember taking Brice to the zoo when he was little. I had him on my back. I turned him to the fence to see the ostrich. The ostrich struck at Brice hitting the fence. I was glad the fence was there. There seemed to be a lot of force in its neck. It made me a little nervous in the game park in Senegal when the ostriches came right up to the truck. We were sitting in the open air in the back of the truck. The ostriches did not seem to have any fear of us. I remember going to the county fair as a child and walking through the barn where the draft horses were kept. Some were large enough that I could have walked underneath its girth. Their size and power overwhelmed me. I remember feeding my neighbor’s pet hawk while he was on vacation. I had to enter into the shed in which he kept it in order to change the water. The hawk jumped on to my leg and held on. It scared the life out of me. His talons were quite uncomfortable.
What does any of this have to do with the glory of God? He created each and every species. He thought through how to arrange the DNA so that they would become what they are. He thought through how to arrange their systems both biologically and ecologically so that they would act as they do. He even thought through how the sin of man would change their existence. He controls their unique characteristics. All we can do is study them and make TV shows out of them. Granted, we are learning more about genetics, but we will never be able to create life from the molecular level to the ecological level. It is too complex for us. But God did it by speaking it all into existence. Can we really question Him as we would a human? We can question, but we must always remember that He is God; we are not, and He will always be infinitely greater than we. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john