The Living, Breathing Human Souls in Your Care
After I got through my harrowing security experience at the Nashville airport, my friend and I left the guys waiting at the terminal while we window shopped at the airport shops. I like the Nashville airport; it is so very Nashville. Even the announcement for how to claim your baggage was recorded by a music star. I already feel at home in Nashville, having grown up just 20 miles away; but if I arrived at the airport from some faraway place, I would feel welcome.
As we strolled, I became curious about this bald eagle I saw displayed in one of the shops.
At first I thought a taxidermist had preserved it; but then I learned that it was not a real eagle at all, but the creation of an artist. The sign beside the eagle told its story. An artist imported its more than 2,000 feathers from around the world. He or she handled each individual feather seven times, hand-cutting and hand-dyeing each one in a patented process. The person who purchases one of these works of art receives a numbered and signed limited edition.
I marvel at this amazing replica of one of God’s magnificent creatures. What an amazing observer is its artist and what an amazing reproducer of what God has made.
That eagle is a creative creation by one of our Creator’s creations. As we learn in Genesis:
God created man in His own image,
in the image of God He created him;
male and female He created them.
Genesis 1:27
However, as my friend and I continued our walk, we talked about that eagle’s limitations. While it stands as a beautiful work of art, it can’t breathe or fly or blink its eye or grab a fish out of the water or reproduce baby eagles.
To help Job see His sovereignty, God asked Job:
Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars,
Stretching his wings toward the south?
Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up
And makes his nest on high?
On the cliff he dwells and lodges,
Upon the rocky crag, an inaccessible place.
Job 39:26-28
The amazing artist whose work I saw at the airport works with objects, but you, you amazing mama, work with a living, breathing human soul who can do so many things and you get to do it every day.
You are blessed. Your children are blessed. You bless the world by what you do.
Her children rise up and bless her;
Her husband also, and he praises her, saying:
“Many daughters have done nobly,
But you excel them all.”
Proverbs 31:28-29