“Praise to the Lord on the harp . . . who
covers heavens with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth, and caused grass
to sprout on the hills. He gives the
cattle their feed, and the young ravens that for which they cry . . .” Ps. 147:
8,9.
There is a “Mile Square Park” close
by. Sometimes we took evening walks
there. There are small lakes, small
island, and plenty of birds. We Chinese
loves the green herons, white storks, white pelicans, sea gulls. We only dislike the jackdaws and crows big
and small.
Why?
Just because they eat dead animals’ meat. . .
Q.
Did you really see them eat such stuff?
A.
Never in my life.
Q.
So you are believing in superstition. . .
A.
It was taught to us from our parents, we Chinese repects parental
teachings as decades-tested immutable truths.
Let me continue. One of the most neglected birds are the
coots. They are all black, like crows,
yet with pointed, short yellow beaks, plus yellow webbed feet, like small
ducks.
Q.
So they are ducks?
A.
No, wild ducks we Chinese call them “Ngaan”, which are seasonal birds,
some flying from Alaska to Peru, and lodging in California just for a few days
in between. They have colorful graceful necks
and heads and cute and lovely.
These coots ain’t. They have no necks, chatter not as awful as
crows and blackbirds, but still noisy to my ears. They go in flocks, running on
the ground, looking for worms (just because there are no dead carcasses . . .
?). They are not scared of humans unless
we get to within 5 feet. We Chinese
don’t like them, because they are not beautiful like the herons and cranes.
Q.
But God made them that way, why don’t you love them as if they are
herons and cranes?
A.
The Calvinists say God pre-determined and pre-elected us Chinese to naturally
love herons and cranes and not the coots.
But I ain’t no Calvinist . . .
Back to my story. I found out that God loves the coots, which
Psalm 147 says “young ravens”. We
Chinese don’t love ravens, and of course this includes young ravens. Yet God not only give them food, but also
hears their cries.
Eventually this compassion and
tenderness of God moved me to tears. God
loves you and me more than young ravens.
