Last year, one beautiful summer morning, I went out for my usual brisk one-hour walk around the neighborhood. About ten minutes into my walk, I saw in the distance, the gory sight of a hare that had been crushed by a car, with its’ entrails spilled out on the road. As I got closer, I noticed some crows beginning to devour the hare’s remains as they cried out for other crows to come join the feast. I was impressed at the show of brotherly love among the birds. I felt sorry for the unfortunate hare until I remembered the Psalm that says, “He provides food for the cattle and for the young ravens when they call.” (Psalm 147:9) Perhaps this was God’s response to the birds when they had earlier cried out to him for food. ‘Such is life’, I thought and continued my walk.
About 40 minutes later, on my way back home, I noticed that the ‘gory sight’ was still on the road, the crows were still crying out but this time, the cries sounded different. When I got closer, I saw a dead crow about six feet from the hare remains. The birds had stopped feasting on the hare remains and now surrounded and mourned the bird that lay lifeless. I figured that as they were feasting earlier on, a car must have run into one of the birds and killed it. For these birds, they were in a new reality- the feasting season was over, and it was the season to mourn.
I was completely blown away by what I was witnessing. This was brotherly love in action- even among birds! First, there was a feast, and they called their ‘brothers’ to come share. Then there was a death and these ‘brothers’ focused on morning together, as they abandoned the feast and never even once attempted to feast on the dead crow. That morning, I realized that birds are much more intelligent than I have ever given them credit for. This scene was very instructive to me and I concluded that this was a classic case of God making his invisible attributes known to us through the things he has made (Rom 1:20). This time it was him showing me how love works, through birds!
I was curious to learn more about the intelligence of crows and did some online research. I found out from a National Geographic source that crows are the Einsteins of the bird world, with the mental ability to solve causal reasoning problems and certain complicated puzzles. Crows have impressive cognitive abilities that is on par with some humans, especially children below 5 years old. Being called a ‘bird brain’ may not be so bad after all!
I was impressed with the level of intelligence God has given these crows and the level of love I had witnessed them show towards each other. My mind wandered to us humans for a moment and I wondered. How many humans would call others to share in the good things they stumble on? How many humans will take their focus off the enjoyment of a feast to spend time helping or mourning other unfortunate humans, after all what was in that for the human? I was saddened to think that crows would act better than humans in some circumstances and I was challenged. God was speaking to me. He wanted me to know that he has higher expectations of me than he did for the birds simply because I was created in his image and have been gifted with supernatural power, through his life, light and love dwelling in my heart. So, what was my excuse again?
Loving others is possible only through the undivided love you have for God because you are expected to love him with ALL your heart, ALL your soul, ALL your mind and ALL your strength. Loving God means trusting him so much that anxiety, fear and stress can no longer dwell in your heart and are replaced with an attitude of peace, patience, long-suffering, honoring others, kindness, joy, trust and a heart devoid of envy, anger, unforgiveness, boasting and pride towards others. In addition to being obedient to God by loving others this way, this wholesome attitude puts your body in a state that promotes good health and keeps away sickness and disease such as depression, anxiety, pain, high blood pressure, and colds.1
The incident of the crows showing brotherly love made me spend a lot more time thinking about how God wanted me to love others in deeper, self-sacrificial ways. Jesus came to show us how to do this through his own life, which was lived in self-denial and self-sacrifice.
It is only through moment by moment choices void of self-centeredness that we can love others the way we are expected to. Loving God and others as Christ has loved us, self-sacrificially, is the commandment that Christ left with us, and our obedience to that command promotes good health and is the only thing that counts for eternity.
How do you currently love others? Completely self-sacrificially or mixed with some self-centeredness? Your health and eternity may depend on this.
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References: 1. uwhealth.org