Recently, I was perusing the Sunday paper and came across a question addressed to Ask Marilyn in the Parade Magazine. The question: "Is it really true that no two snowflakes are alike?" And her answer, "The answer is surely yes. But no two pigeons are alike, either. Or pickles or porpoises or anything else for that matter. For example, consider the human population, which is rapidly approaching seven billion. Do any of us look exactly alike? Nope--not even identical twins."
Wow. I stand in awe of a truly amazing God that literally created an infinite number of species infinitely unique. Who else could do that except a great big loving God?
Once, while traveling with my three year old through our neighborhood, we passed the pond that is in fact just a golf course water hazard. Ducks were swimming there. She looked over there at them, and she said, "Mom, look at that big giant ocean with those chickens in it." Big giant ocean? Chickens? Not quite. That pond is maybe an acre, if not less. With oceans covering more than 141 MILLION square miles of the earth's surface, she just told me that she has a pretty small view of the planet. And chickens? More than 10,000 species of birds inhabit the earth, and to her apparently they all look like chickens. Chickens! Really?
I was thinking about this conversation recently, and I realized that it's not just children that do this. I do it, too. The world is a great big place, but I've only seen a tiny part of it. In my mind, I know there's more out there (there has to be!) and yet, I'm content to think sometimes that my neighborhood represents the population of the planet. I have friends who travel the globe, pouring their lives and their pocketbooks into the lives of those less fortunate. Their stories are profound, and their pictures truly speak a thousand words. Downtrodden, poor, fatherless, all the things that I am not, and yet my tiny worldview keeps me from calling them what they are. I only have the words that I know, and this is what they sound like,
"Wow. You know someone who walks five miles a day to get water for their family?" I just walked across the room.
"You met someone who doesn't have any shoes?" I don't have any shoes that match this outfit.
"You hugged a child that has never met his mommy?" I need to remember to hug mine when she gets home from school today.
"What? What's that you say? There is no school?" And I'm praying that my baby will get in a class this Fall with some friends she knows.
Just typing these words make me sick. What a small, small view of the world I have!
The world is big, but my big giant ocean is right here in this neighborhood and all those chickens are the people who live next door to me. (Now that's a little ironic!) I may not be traveling around the world, but I can do my part right here, right next door. Opportunities are all around me. When I stop thinking of my surroundings as the big giant ocean and instead the small pond that it is, maybe I won't be so overwhelmed. Maybe instead of thinking of everyone else as a chicken I'll be able to identify the real chicken--me. It's time to get my ducks in a row.
