Rarely a day goes by that Noah doesn’t ask me, Eric, or even the lady handing out cookies at the grocery store if they punch bad guys. At first I said it’s not nice to punch anyone. Then I explained that even super heroes don’t actually want to punch bad guys. They just want to keep people safe and sometimes that requires them to punch bad guys. And then I realized that he is 3 years old and probably has no idea what I’m talking about.
I find myself in these situations quite often these days. Just the other day he stepped on a bug in the garage and I had such a mixture of emotions. I was caught between elation that I finally have someone around besides Eric to take care of all the creepy crawly things and sadness that my little guy had just stopped something from existing.
I was raised in a culture of hunting. There was a photo taken when I was about 6 with my sister and I each holding up the antlers of two dead deer. Their tongues were lolling out of their mouths and their eyes were wide and glassy. Yet there we were two little girls, dressed in pink, grinning for the camera.
A large part of me understands that animals are animals and bugs are bugs but this other part of me believes that God created all living things and that we should respect them. Maybe posing with an animal carcass isn’t exactly respectful, but we respectfully ate the vast majority of those animals and they kept our freezer full of healthy lean meat year after year.
Now, I don’t bat an eye when Eric flushes a roach or spider down the toilet. Trust me. But there was something about watching my innocent and pure little three year old stomp on a bug (the first of many i’m sure) and extinguish a life. It’s like owning a pair of white pants. You know that they will eventually get dirty. The only way to keep them perfectly clean is to leave them in the closet and never wear them, but then what’s the point in having them if you can’t enjoy them. I would rather have them be dingy and dirty but alive with wonderful memories than pristine and clean.
I just need to remember to use a gentle but powerful cleaner every now and then and try and keep them as bright and clean as possible.
Job 12:7-10
“But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.”
After Noah stomped the bug I knelt down beside him and explained that the bug was already outside of the house and wasn’t hurting anyone and maybe next time we find a bug inside we should have Daddy take it outside.
Sometimes I feel like I am building a paddle out of toothpicks and Elmer’s glue headed straight at rapids. I sure hope I figure it out before I get to the really hard part!