Yesterday afternoon I went over to my daughter’s place and was able to meet her new little bunny for the very first time! It was very exciting.
Isn’t bunny adorable.
I was pondering the next blog topic – Love does not envy. It’s amazing to me how animals don’t struggle with envy like humans do.
I was imagining my daughter’s adorable little fluffy white bunny looking at the bunnies in mine and hubby’s forest and being envious that they have so much more freedom. They can hop wherever they want and explore to their heart’s content wherever they want in the forest. They don’t have to be cooped up in a bunny crate. Envy.
On the other hand, imagine the bunnies in mine and hubby’s forest looking at my daughter’s fluffy white bunny and being envious that it has such beautiful fluffy white fur. The forest bunnies have short, muted brownish/greyish fur. Their fur isn’t nearly as beautiful as my daughter’s bunny’s fur. Envy.
Furthermore, imagine the forest bunnies being envious that my daughter’s bunny gets food and water given to it every day. It doesn’t have to search for food. It doesn’t have to search for water. Especially during the cold winter months. Food and water are always available … every day … without any effort at all. It’s just not fair. Envy.
On the other hand, imagine my daughter’s bunny being envious of the forest bunnies because they can have fresh green clover and tender green plants to eat. Whereas, it only has dried bunny food. It’s just not fair. Envy.
Imagine the forest bunnies being envious that my daughter’s bunny gets to be brought inside and snuggled. They don’t get specialized attention like that. The only attention they get is from the red-tailed hawk … and the red-tailed hawk is only self-seeking. Envy.
It’s ridiculous imagining the animals being envious of each other like that. I think God looks down from heaven and, in the same way, people being envious of each other are every bit as ridiculous.
Both the white fluffy bunny and the forest bunnies have their own specific unique place in the world. There is no need for them to be envious of each other.
If the fluffy white bunny got what it wanted – to be set free in the forest and have all the freedom it wanted, just like the forest bunnies – what would happen?? It would get eaten in no time!
What if the forest bunnies got what they wanted and had beautiful fluffy white fur, just like my daughter’s bunny has … what would happen?? They would no longer have the camouflage they need to blend in … and they would get eaten!
In the same way, God has placed each one of us exactly where he wants us to be in life, and God has given each one of us exactly what he wants us to have for who he made us to be.
There is no need for envy.
It brings to mind when hubby and I were up on top of the Acropolis in Athens. Reconstruction work is being done on the Parthenon and over to the side was a whole pile of building stones which looked like they were in queue to be added to the construction efforts. As I took this photo I imagined these stones complaining that they weren’t the particular part of the building they wanted to be.
“I don’t want to just be a normal building stone … I want to be a column drum. Column drums are more important.”
“I don’t want to be way down here in this spot … I want to be up there on the capital.”
Here is my own personal paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 12:12-27
“The Parthenon is a magnificent structure, though it is made up of many parts; and though it has many parts, they form one magnificent structure. …
“Now the Parthenon is not made up of one part but of many. If the column drum should say, ‘Because I am not a stylish Doric capital, I am not part of the Parthenon,’ it would not for that reason cease to be a column drum, which was just put in place by the crane.
“And if the crossbeam spanning the column capitals should say, ‘Because I am not a panel of relief carvings (a metope), I am not part of the Parthenon,’ it would not for that reason cease to be part of the Parthenon.
“If the whole Parthenon were nothing but panels of relief carvings (metopes), where would the magnificent columns be? If the whole Parthenon were nothing but crossbeams, where would the beauty of the relief carvings be?
“But in fact the Master Architect has arranged the parts of the structure, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.
“If they were all one part, where would the magnificent structure of the Parthenon be? As it is, there are many parts, but one structure.
“The panels of relief carvings (metopes) cannot say to the Doric capitals atop each column, ‘We don’t need you!’
“And the great triangular Pediment topping each end of the Parthenon cannot say to the foundation, ‘I don’t need you!’
“On the contrary, those parts that seem to be the weaker are indispensable [meaning: the panels of relief carvings (metopes) are only up there because the capitals are holding them up in the first place; and likewise, the Pediment is only able to be up that high because of the foundation supporting it.] … the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor.
“The Master Architect has combined the building materials and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division among the parts, but that each should have equal concern for each other.
“If one column structurally suffers, the entire building is structurally weakened; if one part is honored as especially beautiful, every part of the building rejoices in the magnificence.
“Now you are the magnificent structure which God – the Master Architect – is building … and each one of you is a part of it.”
– 1 Corinthians 12:12-27
There is no place for envy.
Love does not envy.
* Love recognizes that God has made each one of us exactly the way he wanted to make us.
* Love recognizes that God has placed each one of us exactly where he wants us to be in life.
* Love recognizes that God has given each one of us exactly what he wants us to have for who he made us to be.
There is no place for envy.
Love does not envy.
