I grew up with that song. I’ve sung it a thousand times. It was one of squares in the religious quilt of my upbringing, and it served to assure me on numerous occasions that things were okay and that there was some order to Creation. But as I sit here, now nearly 50 years old, I am simultaneously reflecting on life in light of that song aaannnnd, I am actually sitting and watching the great Sparrow War of 2009 take place at the birdfeeders that hang outside my office. It is a strange interaction between religious philosophy and downright entertaining realism.
The sparrow song referred to above is actually drawn from Luke
Main Street in Sparrow Land
12:6. It is used countless times by Christian ministers and writers to stir up in listeners a romantic, almost euphoric assurance that things will be okay. Well, I’ve learned over time that things are NOT okay. Life is tough, and it is not even close to being “fair” or ordered. I’m not saying the Bible is wrong. Who am I to suggest that? But those who translate Biblical meaning to us are in a powerful position, and their translation of a romantic, unrealistic context of the verse – and reality – is inaccurate and damaging to their own religion. Assurance is fine, but don’t go overboard to the point of rewriting reality. The problem is that people will find a gap between reality and what their religion promises.
God Himself gave us five senses to absorb reality. But I believe, in fact, that there is a sixth sense – common sense – that he expects us to employ. And you know, there may even be more senses that we just haven’t tapped into yet. Creation is slowly revealing itself to mankind, and as it does, we have to rewrite our own understanding of it or face believing in something that just isn’t accurate. The “creationists” who believe in the literal translation of Genesis do not and cannot believe in dinosaurs. But prehistoric creation – the events of hundreds of millions of years – is far more evident than post-historic creation. Believing in only a tiny portion of the creation that you see is lying to yourself. Those who don’t allow for the teaching of evolution ignore the greatest gifts that God gave us, our ability to absorb and interact with our world. And those who capture and manipulate depressed people with assurances that creation is always under control and fair – a la the eye on the sparrow – are doing a great injustice to their listeners. Teaching children this is even worse. This is not an ordered or happy planet, and they need to know that. WE as individuals can choose to be happy, but we live on a violent, spinning ball composed of 99.9% hot magma and whirling through space as part of a billion billion galaxies, which each have a billion stars. Assuming we are not vaporized by a chance interaction with a comet or an asteroid, which has occurred at least 12 million times in the Earth’s history, our everyday hard work is often outmaneuvered by good luck or usurped by bad luck. Many good people die too young; many mean people live too long. It’s just not a peaceful existence. And the more we try to order it, the more we defeat the very freedom that wants to be inherent in our existence.
Hmmm… So instead of singing “His Eye is on the Sparrow” to our children, we should strap a helmet on them, teach them how to survive, how to adjust, and how to be flexible in a changing environment. Don’t give them the promise of stability if it is not natural in the world in which they must find a way to not only survive, but excel. Tell them to ask God’s help, to ask for His blessings, and then to ask for strength to face their own great sparrow war on this spinning magma ball. Assure them you will be there to help, but even that is not necessarily under your control. Your being here could easily be trumped by a teenager who is texting her boyfriend while driving. Happens every day.
Now, back to the real sparrows – This is a violent and tenuous
Baby Robin - HOW CUTE !! - found a pile of feathers the next morning about six fee away
existence at best. We think of sparrows as being so cute. In reality, sparrows are mean, selfish, territorial, subject to disease, a favorite prey, and frequently smash into my plate glass windows as they chase each other around. Their world is very much like that of every other creature that inhabits the planet. It is absolutely survival of the fittest, and occasionally the fittest even get nabbed by my cat. There is hatred, bias, starvation, gluttony, happiness, and sadness. One day I was coming home from WalMart, and I stopped at a red light. Right in front of me was a little sparrow, sitting on the road. He was a baby, obviously, with his mother trying to tend to him. As we were sitting there at the light, the little bird started to fly, and at that very second, a larger bird swooped down, plucked him from mid-air, smashed him on the ground, and proceeded to peck his head. It was a violent killing, an avarian contract hit, a rubout. It was sheer violent murder of one of the most innocent things we can imagine – a baby sparrow – in what is supposed to be a somewhat peaceful little bird world. There was a blind eye on that sparrow.
Now, am I suggesting that we as mankind or as individuals should
Mr. Squirrel reeks havoc in Sparrow Land. How many squirrels are there in YOUR world? I have had a few.
lament in the fact that there seems to be no order? As a species, should we just give up and go with the flow and start burning down our neighbor’s house because their leaves blow in our yard? No. We as humans have something the sparrows don’t. We do have an ability – as fleeting as it may seem sometimes – to direct our future, to set aside our violent tendencies, and to work towards a system that will take some of the ambiguity, chaos, bedlam, confusion, and hate out of our existence. But we’re certainly not there yet. There are still quite a few of us smashing into our own plate glass windows. There are still a lot of humans preying on our weak, young, and innocent, just like the killer bird at the WalMart intersection. Utopia is a long way off.
As individuals we have to find a way to reckon with the environment around us. Each of us is subject to the randomness of the universe. I think that is the way God wants it. Who are you to say that everything is ordered? What you see is what God made. Our efforts as individuals and as a civilized species call for us to try to overcome it, to tame it, and to live within it.
But there is one thing, and only one thing, that we can really control. In fact, we are in COMPLETE control of it. That thing is whether we will be happy and spiritually settled in this chaotic environment. No matter what your lot, no matter how many plate glass windows you have smashed into, no matter how many big bully killer birds have attacked you, and no matter how hard you have worked and had the fruit of that work taken away from you by mean people, you have the ability to be happy. It’s not easy. Remember, you are whirling through space at 34,000 miles per hour on a planet that just yesterday was populated by giant lizard sparrows the size of jet fighters with teeth the size of machetes. This happiness is a journey, not a destination. I believe that THIS is God’s test for each of us. Next time you read the Bible, look through those glasses and see what it says.
Have fun out there. Try your hardest. And watch out for the plate glass windows. They are actually harder to deal with than the violent killers.
3 Comments
Fred:
Thank you for your thought provoking article. It is a bit of a heavy hitter for a Monday morning, but I think I am up to it.
Have you ever read a book called “The Shack” by William Young? If not, I strongly recommend it. As you know, I am not a great proponent of Christianity, but this book certainly does put some perspective on things and suggests some answers to “the big questions.” My beliefs are a mix of several different “organized” religions with a heavy dose of my own perspective. This book seems to cover many of the questions I have. No one has any way of being certain of the answers, but Mr. Young has some very good ideas. Check it out.
Take care and have a great week.
Kris
Kris, great to hear from you….
Oh Fred, you know that even though HIS eye IS on the sparrow (even the one that was violently attacked by the killer bird), it does NOT mean the sparrow (or us) are spared from harm. Watching does not equal protection from all harm.
Now, as for common sense, you and I know it is not that common.