Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Robert Howson
Tuesday, December 3, 2024
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all live consistently. (And I intentionally ended that sentence with a period instead of a question mark.) That’s what we all strive for but seldom achieve. Certainly there are those days when we are on a spiritual high, but we also have those times when our spiritual life seems to nosedive.
I’ll use the Black-headed Gull as an example of this. To begin with, the uninitiated might refer to it as a seagull. But this would be incorrect, for it isn’t a pelagic species, as it is seldom seen at sea far from the coasts. It used to have the word “Common” attached to the beginning of its name, but that would be correct only if referring to the Old World. It’s estimated there may be as many as 400 non-breeders in North America along with 40 which nest, but that is hardly common when spread out over the continent. Here in Washington we have only12 accepted records, so not really common. And as far as being black-headed, that’s really only true for mature birds and then only during the breeding season.
Those of us that call ourselves Christian long for a life that matches our name, but so often we fail to achieve this. Ninety-nine years after California Gulls delivered the Mormon pioneers, this Old World species accomplished a parallel feat in Perthshire, Scotland, by consuming a plague of caterpillars. But much of the time they are content to opportunistically feed on refuse at the local garbage dump. Paul addresses this gap between the “is and the ought”. The Message paraphrases the last part of Romans 14:23 this way: “If the way you live isn’t consistent with what you believe, then it’s wrong.” That’s pretty clear, isn’t it? Thank God for His grace, grace that covers those visits to the dump and grace that motivates us to live gratefully.