We have been very blessed with a rich array of bird life around our home. We have a pair of wrens nesting in a box by our patio. Goldfinches and hummingbirds decorate the view outside our window. However, yesterday morning a wood thrush and one of the wrens decided to wake up the world at 4:15 A.M. This morning a cardinal made it a trio. I don’t want to sound like an old humbug but as lovely as they sound, 4:15 A.M. is not appropriate at all. Solomon said it so well in Ecclesiastes 3. “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: . .” Not outside my open window at 4:15.
In Ecclesiastes 3 Solomon has challenged ethicists, moralists and the rest of the thinking world with “There is a time to kill.” “A time to love, and a time to hate.” “A time for war.” Someone might ask but what about “Thou shall not kill.” It does appear that God would, instead of having us act like robots, have us think and ponder justice. Laws are but simplified expressions of principles. To live by principles often requires agonized hours of decision making. How easy life would be (and how wrong life would be) if all we had to do is blindly follow statues in stone.
“To everything there is a season.” “God hates lying lips.” Yet, we lionize with honor those who saved the lives of thousands in Europe during World War II. Those lives were saved by the use of many lies. When God made us in His image He gave us minds, minds to ponder, minds to, with His help, do that which is loving, fair and just.
Written by Roger Bothwell on May 22, 2012
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org