Among the news stories today of Egypt’s post-election crisis, Syria’s civil war, and the G20’s alarm over the Eurozone’s fiscal challenges, is Prince William’s advocacy for the endangered Rhino.
Poachers reportedly can get 60,000 black market dollars per kilo (2.2 pounds) for a tusk that is believed by some to have powerful medicinal value. That makes powdered Rhino horn worth more than gold.
So if you happen to have cancer in a culture that sees the horn of a rhino as a cure for a life-threatening disease, whether you have enough money to buy rhino powder may be a consuming interest and anxiety. You may also see Prince William as defending Rhinos while not having a clue about the value of your health.
But, forget the rhino (if you don’t believe it can help you). Aren’t we more likely to be numbed today by the fears of unemployment, foreclosure, family issues, credit card debt, or any one of tens of thousands of physical or emotional problems?
Yet, as we take a deep breath… it is in this very kind of messed up world, that the Bible offers hope. In the process, the wisdom of ancient Scriptures makes it sound as if our real problems or solutions aren’t what they at first seem to be.
Admittedly, more than a few consider the Bible’s approach to real problems as impractical and naive. But how else do we make sense of the fact that some of the poorest people in the world are among the most grateful, while some of the most successful are among the most miserable and pathetic?
The spiritual perspectives of the Bible don’t discount for a moment that what’s happening today in Egypt, Syria, unemployment lines around the world, and even in the poaching fields of Africa, is important to someone…and to our God!
But who else can even begin to give us the hope and well-being that we really need– than the Creator, Sustainer, and Protector that David honored when he picked up his “guitar” and sang:
If the Lord had not been on our side— let Israel say— if the Lord had not been on our side when men attacked us, when their anger flared against us, they would have swallowed us alive; the flood would have engulfed us, the torrent would have swept over us, the raging waters would have swept us away. Praise be to the Lord, who has not let us be torn by their teeth. We have escaped like a bird out of the fowler’s snare; the snare has been broken, and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth…. (Psa 124:1-8) …
<Who also thoughtfully designed the Rhino, the fruit fly… and then to top it all–those he calls his sons and daughters.>
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