Amanda Cleary Eastep

Crow research and cappuccinos were the order of the afternoon as I worked on a short story for a Christian teen magazine on this good Good Friday.

A few years ago, my elder daughter worked with an American crow as part of an internship for her master’s degree in environmental biology. When I asked her what deeper lesson she’d learned from Sweetie, she said “how to communicate with a creature who also wanted to interact with me, but in his way not mine. Communication goes both ways, and I can’t expect everything to go my way.”

I couldn’t help but think how much that sounded like my relationship with God. 

One of my favorite Bible passages reads:

“But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.” Job‬ ‭12‬:‭7‬-‭10‬ ‭NIV

Creation is the school of knowledge, and man is the learner, reads one commentary on these verses.

It is not a school that force feeds or indoctrinates, but rather invites us to:

ASK

SPEAK

LET

As we observe creation, but also actively engage with it, we can learn of God’s wisdom, power, sovereignty, and love from the lowliest creature and the darkest day—both of which He declared, Good.