Survival of the weakest
“When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
A couple of years ago my wife and I were having some work done on our house. I was in the driveway talking with the builder about timelines and materials and I noticed I lost his attention. The builder took a few steps, bent over, picked up a worm that was creeping across the concrete, and tossed it in the grass. Without saying a word about it, we returned to our conversation.
To me, it was just a worm. Probably thousands of them would dry out that day on paved surfaces—in my neighborhood alone. But to my builder, that worm was a part of Creation he was given to tend. I am prone to think that saving a worm from desiccating on my driveway is a bit Buddhist or New Age. But my builder has Genesis 1 on his side.
If we're called to care for every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, then even more so God's children made in His image. From cover to cover, the Bible instructs us to care for the poor, the weak, and the less powerful. Jesus modeled this in His words, His life, and His death. And I must become like Him.
