Life Finds a Way - August 27, 2020

The premise for Jurassic Park was the idea that combining dinosaur DNA with DNA from today’s reptiles would produce dinosaurs which would NOT be able to reproduce. By doing so, the Park Authorities could control the dinosaur population. Early on, they realize that their dinosaurs are reproducing on their own. The Head of the Park observes, “Life always finds a way!”We live on a planet abundant in life forms from single-celled amoebas to complex humans whose multiple organ systems from skin to brain, heart to lungs, muscles to bones have allowed us to populate the earth with over 7 Billion people. Life found a way!We have a neighborhood cat, Mocha. We started feeding her and letting her inside for short visits last fall. On Halloween, we met her owners. They live one street over. A while later they came knocking on our door to ask us not to let Mocha into our home. Apparently, she had been out all night and they were worried about her. We grudgingly agreed and continued to feed her and visit with her outside. By late winter she was very pregnant. We heard that she had a successful litter and did not see her for a few weeks. Not long after her visits resumed, she appeared to be pregnant again.On Monday she dashed into the house early in the morning and disappeared into our den. After two unsuccessful searches, I found her under a desk and behind a pile of books. I picked her up and placed her outside. Faith noticed that she was bleeding. We put a box with a soft towel on our deck and contacted the owner. Later the owner arrived and took her home. Early the next morning, Faith heard a tiny meow from under the desk and found a day-old kitten – cold and hungry. She woke me to hold the bit of fur close to my chest while she warmed some milk and fed him with a syringe. Within a couple of hours, the kitten was reunited with his mother and two siblings. Mocha welcomed him and nursed him, but it was too late.Life looks to find a way. We are either life’s partners or its obstacles. Jesus came that we may have life: abundant and full. Our job is to devote our selves to life’s fullness for all, beginning with those who are “least” in the eyes of the dominant culture. Today I am haunted by the mewling cries of a new-born kitten and by the countless cries of children born into poverty, deprivation, hunger, neglect, disease or abuse. May God’s Life find its Way in each of us.Bill