June 20th - Reflection

Job 38:39-39:12 (NRSV)
Creation story from Job
"Can you hunt the prey for the lion,
or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
when they crouch in their dens,
or lie in wait in their covert?
Who provides for the raven its prey,
when its young ones cry to God,
and wander about for lack of food?

"Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?
Do you observe the calving of the deer?
Can you number the months that they fulfill,
and do you know the time when they give birth,

when they crouch to give birth to their offspring,
and are delivered of their young?
Their young ones become strong, they grow up in the open;
they go forth, and do not return to them.

"Who has let the wild ass go free?
Who has loosed the bonds of the swift ass,
to which I have given the steppe for its home,
the salt land for its dwelling place?
It scorns the tumult of the city;
it does not hear the shouts of the driver.
It ranges the mountains as its pasture,
and it searches after every green thing.

"Is the wild ox willing to serve you?
Will it spend the night at your crib?
Can you tie it in the furrow with ropes,
or will it harrow the valleys after you?
Will you depend on it because its strength is great,
and will you hand over your labor to it?
Do you have faith in it that it will return,
and bring your grain to your threshing floor?


Reflection
God seems to point to a different way of caring for creation. Instead of dominating creation for our own advantage, for fuel, for food or to uphold a materialistic lifestyle; God seems to point to a very different way of interacting with creation.

The lion is cared for in the event food is needed. The beauty of birth and the significance of life is enjoyed and honored even with the animal kingdom. Animals are free from labor for the advantage of humans and the drivers are silenced, so that the wild ass can range the mountains for it's pasture and be free.

The ox is released to be an ox and not a beast of burden.

It seems when you look at it, that God looks at the creation and says, hey, I created this good. Why don't you just maintain what is good instead of trying to use what I created for your own good.

This passage seems to point to how selfish I can be in my use of the provisions God has given me. I use what God gives for my own good. Maybe I should use what is given for the beauty of what God has already done. Maybe I should be sustaining the life of another with the gifts I have received. Maybe I should be adding beauty with the beauty God has already given me.

Come to think of it. Isn't that what God did when he sent Jesus into this world. He added beauty to this world. But we tried to take Jesus and make him into what we wanted...A ruler of the world for our own advantage. Stop it!

Take Jesus and the beauty of his life and the Spirit and add beauty to this world. Quit taking for myself. Take the gifts of Jesus and the Spirit and the Father and add beauty of life and giving to what is already here. Maybe that's the message here.

We can't add beauty by taking advantage of beauty. We can't add beauty by reaping the benefits of the worldly resources for our own advantage. But we can add beauty through the love of Jesus, the gifts of the Spirit and the empowerment to go and love one another and care for creation, because God first cared for us.

Maybe that's the point. God cared enough for us to send flesh in Jesus to save us. Let us love as Jesus loved. Thanks be to God!

Prayer
Lord, change my view to see the beauty you intended in this creation...and that includes me too. --- Amen