I seethed over the callous thief who’d scammed my vulnerable widowed friend out of a significant portion of her retirement fund. How could anyone intentionally maul others like that? My prayer walk quickly morphed into a rant as I called on the wrath of God to flash down and wreak vengeance on wretched people-predators.
Suddenly, my attention was drawn overhead by a pair of flesh-mauling carnivores hooting from an oak limb. My displaced anger turned toward the predator owls for ruthlessly capturing and consuming the sweet lil’ baby squirrels and birdies in my yard.
Only they didn’t look like deadly raptors at the moment. They were … um, cuddling.
What??!?
I found it shocking that these deadly predators, in my estimation on the same shame-on-you scale as scammer human predators, could be sharing a sweet, tender moment. It was a side of them I never considered. I had mentally painted them all the same color — black — and never once thought that there might be a softer hue inside that was remotely redeemable.
It occurred to me that maybe predator owls are only following their ingrained natures to stay alive. Perhaps predator-people following their sinful natures are simply proving they need a savior.
And that’s where we come in. We, the redeemed, Jesus-dependent, there-but-by-the-grace-of-God-go-I believers who know firsthand the path to salvation and are called to share the good news with the human raptors of our sin-wrecked world. Not condemn. Not hate. Not judge. (We’ll let Papa God do that.)
It’s not easy. It’s never easy to intentionally defuse anger over injustice. To turn judgement over to the only true Judge. “There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; … who are you who judge your neighbor?” (James 4:12 NASB).
Because none is righteous. No, not one. (Romans 3:10). And judging isn’t my job. Loving is. Gulp. I think I’m gonna have to dig a little deeper into my Savior’s supernatural love if I’m to live with clawed, razor-beaked predators. And I don’t mean just the kind with feathers.
What kind of predators do you have the most trouble living with, my friend?