Late Monday night Jocelyn and I returned from a short weekend trip to Alabama. We visited my family, celebrated Josh and Cynthia's (brother and soon to be sister) first wedding shower and THOROUGHLY enjoyed my mother's cooking. It was a much needed trip.
Ok. The last year or so I, like many americans, have been following the political scene. In case you are out of the loop (and do not have a t.v. or radio), one of these three people will lead our country by November: Barack Obama (D), Hillary Clinton (D), or John McCain (R). Please do not stop reading because this is in no way a dissection of any of the above listed candidates. This is indeed a reflection of my heart and quite possibly the hearts of many Christ followers in this country.
Myself and another person were watching animal planet several days ago and the topic was crocodiles. Now, I know a little bit about crocodiles and was sharing what i know with this other person. The particular crocodile that this show exploited was the Nile crocodile. Fun fact, Nile "crocs" are the second largest in the world next only to saltwater crocodilians. Back to the show. We watched the croc for a couple minutes and I said to the other person, " I hate those things." I immediately felt conviction in my heart because I know that God loves them and I should not have contempt for any of His creation, but they appear to be so "cold" and evil that it is hard for me to love them. The other person agreed and then the scene changed.
As it unfolded we discovered that this crocodile was a female and expecting mother. She lay her eggs and buried them. We were amazed at how long she struggled to safely secure those eggs under ground by pushing dirt with her hind legs. There was a time lapse that we were spared because of editing and then myself and this other person had a change of heart. The camera showed a monitor lizard digging out and eating all of the mother's eggs. The mother figured out what was happening from the water but she was too late, her eggs were gone. A very insightful truth uttered from my fellow watcher just as the lizard began eating the eggs, she said "awwww." Immediately, I began to think of pro-life, pro-choice and capital punishment. Many christ followers are COMPLETELY against any form of abortion, but when an adult makes a society-determined unforgivable choice (i.e. murder, rape, molestation) then he or she no longer deserves to have the right to live.
Those baby crocodiles were innocent in my eyes, but one day they will grow up and eat other animals and become dangerous to humans. I live in a broken world. Crocodiles live in a broken world. Rapist, Murders, Molesters and Terrorists live in a broken world. It is so easy to love an innocent baby who has not yet acted out in it's own brokenness, but as christians (not political party members) we must search GOD'S heart for justice in a broken world and not pray, believe or vote from a place of incongruence and conflict within ourselves. Is God a lover without boundaries? Are we?
