Driving down the road the other day, we passed a speed limit
sign and I made some comment about Michael driving too fast. From the back seat
Abbey randomly pipes up and says, “Hey, did you know a blue whale can swim 3 m.p.h.?” Then, yesterday, she comes running in the room and
says, “Do you know who are partners in the wild?! Warthogs and mongooses!!
Isn’t that crazy?!! Now a gazelle and an oxpecker, that makes sense. But
a warthog and a mongoose--no way!!!” And
off she ran to play.
And such is a typical day of conversation around here.
Since she was two years old and watched her very first Baby
Einstein video on which she met her first meerkat, she has been obsessed with
the animal kingdom. She can tell the
difference between a kudu and a gazelle; an ostrich and an emu; a lemur and a
bush baby. She is absolutely passionate
about God’s creations. She is, as I
write, literally typing up a Word document, three pages long (so far) with animals--quantity
of each, scientific names for each, and what she should feed them. The title of her document: “The Animals I
Want In My Zoo”.
We found scored an old set of eleven Funk & Wagnall’s Wildlife Encyclopedias
at the thrift store the other day. Did
you hear her squeal of delight from where you are?!
Are you that passionate about something? Anything?
Watching
her excitement grow as she learns more and more about the animal kingdom every
day really does make me think. . .
What am I passionate about?
My husband and my family? Of course, yes. Homeschooling? Yes. Being a foster parent? Yes. But what else?
I know what my answer automatically should be: Jesus and the Scriptures and making sure everyone one I
know and love has a chance to know the Truth before this world is no more.
I want to be able to confidently say to anyone who will
listen, things like, “Hey, did you know a king actually helped finance the rebuilding
of the temple at Jerusalem, as part of God’s divine design?” or “Did you know
that the only book in the Bible in which God is never mentioned is
Esther?”
I want to easily know the difference between Malachi and
Nehemiah; Ezra and Esther; Hezekiah and Habukkah.
Sadly, I admit to you all that I spend ridiculous amounts of
time on things that don’t really matter (scanning Facebook, surfing the net,
watching mindless television) and not nearly enough time praying and studying
the Word of God. In order to be able to
quote scripture as confidently as reciting my own name, I have to make changes.
Taking a cue from my passionate, future-zookeeper nine-year-old,
the new prayer of my heart is to become the truest picture of mercy and grace God
desires for me to be---a passionate follower of Christ.
~~~~~~~~~~
God spoke: "Earth, generate life! Every sort and kind: cattle and reptiles and wild animals—all kinds." And there it was: wild animals of every kind, Cattle of all kinds, every sort of reptile and bug. God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:23-25
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