reality versus fiction

This post won’t make sense. I’m certain of it. But here goes.

I’ve just watched a video where a woman leaves her house every morning to greet a deer who returns, every morning, to join her in her kitchen to be fed from a bottle. The deer is hesitant, but eager, excited, but guarded. Some people think it’s cute…Others freak out because the deer is wild, and should stay wild, and the woman is ruining everything.

But here’s the thing. Yes, most animals are wild. But as children of God, we were called to be good stewards of the earth, to love as we are loved, to take care, as we are taken care of. Originally, we supposedly got along with animals, shepherded them without fear, without care. And I can’t help but imagine a life outside of of those expectations. A life where we live in harmony with “wild” animals. My heart aches for the lion and the lamb, pure harmony and bliss.  As a human, I’m delighted by the fact that this deer enjoys coming to this woman’s house, that this woman is delighted by the fact that this deer is eager to take a bottle from her kitchen. Part of me wants us humans to live in harmony with the animals around us, feeding them, becoming their friends. I get and understand the “let them be” idea, but maybe we’re all just expecting a reality that isn’t true to our natures. maybe, just maybe, we’re supposed to befriend the deer (maybe feeding it things it usually eats…) and maybe we’re supposed to nurse animals back to heath so that years from now we can go to the wild and be embraced by lions who remember our kindness, our brotherliness, our sincerity.

Or maybe I just live in a world where the lion embraces the lamb, where the wild meets the civilized. Either way, I’m torn. All I know is that if a deer decided to end up at my door every morning wanting to spend the morning with me, I wouldn’t deny him his animistic rights. If I raised a lion to adulthood, released him, then wanted to see how he was doing years from then, I wouldn’t deny an embrace that shook the world. I crave a world wholly filled with sincerity and grace, and I’ll wait an eternity for it.