One Of These Things....

Romans 8:15 -- "For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry 'Abba, Father'."

 

As a gentle mist still hides much of the grassy banks and bull frogs belch out their fare-the-wells, an attentive Lesser Scaup duck takes her chicks to the middle of a pond to feed.  Dabblers instead of divers, it's sometimes funny to watch the ducks slip their beaks just below the surface with their tail feathers sticking strait up into the air in search of some hidden delectable treasure. Watching the little brood, it becomes apparent that not all of these chicks have the same coloration.

Either this wonderful mother is kindly chick-sitting a neighbors hatchlings, or her nest has been parasitized [hijacked, if you will]. A closer inspection of this tight family unit provides proof positive that the Lesser Scaup mother has been duped into raising a couple of Redheaded chicks along with her own. The Redheaded duck is notorious for "sharing" her offspring with other duck mothers by laying her eggs in more than just her own nest. She does this to increase the chances of her chick's survival in a quite literal translation of the age-old advice not to put all your eggs in one basket. 

But the mother Scaup doesn't seem to notice that her children don't all look the same. She loves each of them without prejudice. She dabbles for food right along side her little brood and will fiercely defend them to the very best of her ability taking no heed of their different colors. A truly seamless adoption if ever there was one.

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Romans 8:15. There is joy in knowing that we have been granted the precious gift of sonship. Though we all come from different places on Earth, we all have different cultures, languages, and different DNA - we are ALL given this sonship through the blood of Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter that our feathers aren't all the same color - each of us is equally loved. Equally cared for. Equally defended as children of One Father.

It breaks my heart that in all of our technical, social, and economical development as co-inhabitants of this blue planet - we have yet to grow into truly color blind people. Not a single one of us - based on our efforts - escapes falling short of God's glory as born sinners. Not a one of us is able to march up to the gates of Heaven and enter a pass-code earned by the color of our skin or the superiority of our cultural heritage.

Romans 8:15 does not differentiate between skin tone, annual income, or societal rank. Nor does John 3:16 exclude any group of people based on tribe, territory, or birthright. No, Jesus bled out on that rugged cross for each and every one of us.

If the simple mother Lesser Scaup can love and raise a brood of chicks with blended blood lines and different colored feathers without giving any thought to color or creed -- why is it that we of the bigger brains and greater understanding cannot do the same?