A friend once told me about being hired by the government to study the bears in a certain area. He and another man set up a camp in the midst of known bear territory and began the work. They had been watching a family of bears for some time, recording their movements and eating habits. One morning they were observing a large male fishing in a river. They recorded their data and slowly backed away. When they thought they were a safe distance they stood up and turned toward their camp. My friend had his head down, fiddling with his camera case when suddenly he heard his co-worker call his name in a rather urgent tone. There, only a few feet away, was a large female. Her two cubs were romping a few paces away, between the men and the mother. The female had not seen them yet and they managed to back away quickly before she did. My friend said it took them a while before they stopped shaking. They new there was one primary rule in their work ? a rule they could not break ? "Don't mess with Mama." Mother bears are notoriously protective. Their first instinct is to protect their young. Those two men knew they had escaped a potentially deadly situation.
God has designed some wonderful instincts in the natural world. He has made not only bears and other animals in a particular way, but he has designed mankind in a particular way too, with purpose in mind. Unfortunately we sometimes think we can improve on the product. We think we can change his pattern, recreate nature to suit our purposes. Like those two men who almost stumbled into a mother bear with her cubs, I believe we tread close to the edge of disaster.
It isn't the first time. Very early in our history, we managed to make such a mess of the world that God had to destroy it with a cataclysmic flood. (Genesis 6). We got so distracted building a tower of our own design, to make a "name for ourselves" (Genesis 11:3), that God had to scatter us and confuse us with the babble of many languages. We allowed our cities to become so full of the perversions of God's design that He had to destroy them. (Genesis 19:24)
We hear much today about perversions of nature and men playing God. I fear we are "messing" with God's design and God's purpose. I wonder how long He will allow us to continue? And how much of a mess will we make before he says, "enough?"
There is still time to turn away. Like those two men who stood on the edge of disaster, we can change our course. They knew better than to ignore their one cardinal rule, "don't mess with Mama." Do we?
Marcia Laycock is a pastor's wife and freelance writer living in Alberta Canada. Her devotional book, The Spur of the Moment has been endorsed by Janette Oke, Phil Callaway and others. To order, and to view more of Marcia's writing, see her web site - www.vinemarc.com
Copyright Marcia Lee Laycock, 2000, 2001,2002,2003,2004