Reverence for Nature

When I was 11 years old I lived in paradise. Well, to me it was paradise. We really lived in an old farm house out in the country in Arizona. The nearest town was several miles away. There were farms surrounding our home. Cotton fields on one side, sugar beets on the other, and a cow pasture across the road. When I wasn't playing in a barn or swimming in a ditch I was out shooting with my brother's BB gun. He had a Daisy BB gun, the kind you cock once and shoot. I got to be a pretty good shot with that thing. Once in a while I would shoot a dove or a quail, and I would pluck 'em and cook 'em and eat 'em. But after a while I began to shoot other birds, mostly sparrows - just for the fun of it. I don't know how many birds I shot but it was a lot.

The Trap

One day I was exploring around and found an animal trap - the kind where you open the steel jaws when you set it. I had seen some squirrels from time to time playing out back behind the old barn. There was a big mesquite tree and the squirrels loved to eat the beans that grew on the tree. I thought to myself, "I'm going to catch me one of those squirrels." So I took the trap and placed it under the tree. I gathered some of the mesquite beans and place them on the trap as bait. Then I carefully set the trap. I was so excited to catch a squirrel.

From time to time I went to check my trap and each time there was nothing in it. Pretty soon the sun went down and I had to go to bed. Gosh I sure wanted to catch a squirrel but no such luck.

The Horror

The next morning I jumped out of bed and ran out to check my trap. As I got closer to it I could see there was an animal in it. Something was wiggling. I was so excited I ran even faster. As I got close to the trap my heart sank. I couldn't believe what I saw there in my trap. I was filled with horror. There were two little black eyes looking up at me - almost as if to say, "So you're the one who did this to me!" There in my trap was a bird with both of its legs broken. I don't know what kind of bird it was but it was bigger than a sparrow, and it was in pain.

I thought to myself, "What am I going to do? There's no way I can fix this little bird's legs. If I just let it go it will never survive. It won't be able to get food. It won't be able to sit on a branch. It won't be able to walk. It will just suffer and die a horrible death. Oh what have I done?"

Do the Right Thing

I remembered that my father had taught me that you should never let an animal suffer - that the right thing to do was to put it out of its misery. Oh, how was I going to put this bird out of its misery? I saw that nearby was an irrigation canal, the one that I had swam in so many times. I then knew what I had to do. I carefully opened the trap and took the little bird up in my hands. The poor thing was in terrible pain - all because of me!

I carried the bird over to the canal, knelt down at the water's edge, looked that bird in the eye and apologized for what I was about to do. I gathered up my courage and slowly placed the bird under the water. I could feel it struggle in my hands. Then it struggled less and less. Finally, after what seemed like and eternity, it quit struggling and its little heart quit beating. It's one thing to kill a bird 30 yards away with a BB gun. It's quite another to have it die right in your hands. I wept as I lifted the little bird out of the water and realized what I had just done.

I took the little body, dug a small grave and buried it there on the banks of the irrigation canal. I made a promise to myself right there that I would never needlessly kill anything again. And since that day I haven't.

The Lesson Learned

I have tried to teach my sons the same lesson. Life is sacred and we should have respect and reverence for it. It wasn't right to take your magnifying glass and burn up ants with it. You don't squish bugs just for the fun of it. You don't throw frogs against trees. You don't tie firecrackers to cat's tails. You don't pull the wings off flies or treat any of God's creations in a disrespectful or cruel way. And you don't shoot little birds.

I fear that some day I will stand before God to be judged and there, standing beside him, will be 30 little birds all with their little wings pointed at me and saying, "Yes, that's him, he's the one who did it!" And what am I going to say?

You may wonder why I am sharing this with you. Is this really part of Personal Development? I think it is. I believe the world would be a better place if each of us had a respect and reverence for Nature. I feel those who respect God's creations will also respect the grandest of all of God's creations, Mankind. Thank you.