Wednesday, February 8, 2023
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Animals in Eden
The Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being.
Our internet is out again, and so who knows when this devotion will get posted. But we do have electricity, and so we have a computer, and so I can write. But I wanted to share the thoughts of a character in Jane Smiley’s book Perestroika in Paris, and I can’t find the spot in the audiobook.
The character is a rat.
In Jane’s book the humans are mostly bystanders. Animals, with their own energy and their own morals, live and breathe and work together to help a hundred year old woman and her great grandson Etienne, who is eight and not going to school. There is a horse, Perestroika herself, a dog named Frida, two boisterous mallards who sound very French and very negative, a loudmouth, opinionated raven, and … then there is a rat named Kurt.
Kurt and his fellow rats have a complex. Girls shriek when they see them, and boys try to corner them and cut their heads off. The rats have grown to see themselves as something less than God’s creation. They comfort each other. The horse likes it when they run across his back, massaging him with their small feet.
But there is still the matter of bridging the gap between rat and human.
All creatures look to you to give them food in due time. When you give it to them, they gather it; when you open your hand, it is filled with good things.
Etienne is sitting on the ground with his dog, rubbing the dog’s head. Kurt comes out of his corner. He notices Etienne’s left hand, and he sees Etienne open his fingers. Kurt’s eyes got wide, and Etienne flattened his palm. Kurt took a chance. He nosed Etienne’s thumb, and then slowly crawled up on his hand. Etienne did not close his hand, but he did stand up and begin walking toward the kitchen. He got Kurt some cheese, which he ate with relish, never quite closing his eyes.
The Lord God took the man he had made and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it.
I haven’t finished the book. But I do know that Jane’s book was praised in the Los Angeles Times: “In an era beset by polarization and even violent tribalism (among humans), it feels like a gift to find a novel in which characters of different species – with different desires and instincts – come together to build a community.”
The Lord God gave man this command: You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. From that tree you shall not eat; the moment you eat of it you are surely doomed to die.
We build community too, except when we don’t. Clarence Heller does a personal take on Paul’s “one body with many members” in Romans 12:
An artist makes art.
A mother nurtures.
A carpenter builds.
A gardener pays attention.
A grandparent plays.
A friend listens.
A poet dreams.
A dancer flies.
And God, God loves it all.
Can we recover from our mistake in Eden? Yes, as Jesus has freed us to recover. Can we learn to love our friends the rats? Are they even our friends? Jane seems to have hope for this. She said about her book, “The animal I most wanted to fit in was the rat. Rats, as the rat knows, have a bad rap, but the more you learn about them the more interesting they are. I hope people empathize with the rat.”
If you take away our breath, we perish and return to our dust. But when you send forth your spirit, we are created, as you renew the face of the earth. O bless the Lord, my soul!
 (Genesis 2, Psalm 104, John 17, Mark 7)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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