We have two crows which frequent our neighborhood. In fact, they are around so much we have grown fond of them and given them names. One is Carl, and the other is Esmeralda. Now, Carl is the chatty one. You can hear him just about any time of the day with his familiar: “Caw, caw, caw!” It’s usually a tri-caw. We especially enjoy hearing him when we’re just waking up, and he seems to be calling us to the day’s activities. After all, he’s been up for some time already, so why shouldn’t we be up and about?!
Esmeralda is his faithful companion, and they are almost always together. One morning when we went for a walk, they both followed us pretty much the whole way. No, I’m not making this up!
But Carl and Esmeralda are just doing what crows do as God designed them. They fly, search for food and chatter. They are inquisitive and attracted to shiny objects. Some have been known to accept food from people. They even make little “crowsies” or whatever they’re called. They are crows being crows.
We humans can learn a lot from the creatures which God made. They do a much better job of being what God intended them to be than we do. In our text God Himself observes that the “sons” He had reared had revolted against Him and become a nation of evildoers. He uses the ox and donkey as examples of creatures which know their own masters and are obedient to them.
When we are disobedient, more is happening than the fact that we have failed to follow the word of the Lord or disobeyed one of His commands. Since we are made in the image of God, we have failed to live up to that image, and we become something other that what God designed us to be. Most of us know the definition of sin as “missing the mark.” That mark may not so much be the word of God as the image of God in which we were made. Certainly, we are all sinners, but God didn’t make us to be sinners but to reflect the image of the divine. How do you see yourself? Others? Hmmm?