Genesis 9:2 Fear and Dread and Dominion

Near my mother's home is a tidal creek that bustles with nature: birds, butterflies, reptiles, insects and fiddler crabs. Fiddler crabs scurry across her yard and through her flowerbeds. They march sideways across her porch and hide under her garage door. Their homes are wholes dug into the mud that lines the sides of her drainage ditch. As I walk around her yard, I like to try to catch them unaware. 
   I never do. When I walk near the edge of the ditch they pop into their wholes. If i walk slowly toward the canal I see them dance across the dock. I hear their miniature crab feet rustle across leaves. If I'm quick enough I might surprise two of them waltzing on the dock, as if it were a stage.

  If I sit very still along the bank of the side creek they will come half way out of their whole, and with their largest claw in the air they will wave it back and forth, opening and closing their pinchers. Soon a chorus of claws will perform in unison, but only if I sit very still. If I move they stop, scurry and hide. As small as they are they know of my presence and they act in fear. Their "dread" of me causes them to always use caution and never trust mankind. 
   Mankind has lost its chance to coexist in peace with the animal kingdom. In studying and pondering Genesis I was made aware of a few thoughts concerning man's relationship to the animal kingdom.

Prior to the flood: 

•  Genesis 1:28 Both man and animal ate herb for meat.  

And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there islife, I have given every green herb for  meat: and it was so. 

• Man had dominion over the animals. Genesis 1:28 This meant he was in charge of life on the earth. He was called to know and care for the earth. 
• The garden still existed. I have to believe that man and beast had memory of its great blessings to them. 
• Man's evil imagination escalated his actions to violence.   Prior to the flood there is no reference to animals need to fear man. But in fact it does say that God's hope had been in man's ability to learn to love one another and all of the earth and follow "his way."        Genesis 6:12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all ^aflesh had corrupted his ^bway upon the earth.  His way was not the way we now know. A few things changed after the flood. 

After the flood: 

• Noah builds an altar and petitions God for a promise that this will never happen again. 
• God covenants with Noah AND every living beast upon the earth, that he will never again flood the earth. 
• God changes the nature of the relationship of man to the animals. No longer does man   have dominion over the animals but he also has lost his "right" to associate peaceably with them. God places in the animals a fear and a dread. Why? 
• I believe it was a way to try to protect the animals from man's unrighteous dominion. 

The corruption that man brought to the earth with his selfish and vain imaginations corrupted the earth. Did it also corrupt the animals? When Noah found grace with God and became one of only eight humans to survive the flood, did  that animals that came to Noah also find God's grace? The second time around God realized that the animals would need a way to protect themselves if man ever chose to exercise "unrighteous dominion" again. 

After the flood 

• dietary laws change. The definition of "meat" changes see Geneses 1:29-30 Genesis 9:3, 4
• Animals have the ability to protect and defend themselves from man and from one another. (this is to say that God's original plan might have "hoped" that this would not be needed." 
• Man looses the wisdom and insight of animals intelligence. We have to resort to study and science to learn from the animals. Were they once able to help us and communicate with us?

It is a daunting thought to consider what the flood took from us? As I watch the beauty and intelligence that exists within the animal kingdom, I am in awe of the harmony that binds them socially, emotionally, and intellectually. Did man once have the ability to share in this harmony? Man seems to believe that we are the more intelligent of all of God's creatures. Who became the biggest loser when the bridge of communication between man and animal changed? 

What was lost? What was gained? What does dominion bring if it is accompanied with unrighteousness? Why did God believe he had to delineate what meat could be eaten? Genesis 9:4  But flesh with the life thereof, which is the ^cblood thereof, shall ye not eat. Was it because of man's violence and his evil imaginations? 

All of this came because God gave man the power to have dominion. He never gave him the power to control another's life. Dominion? What does it mean to you? Why did man misinterpret it to the point that God felt the need to protect the animals by placing a "fear and dread" within them? 

What exactly can the animals teach us? 

Fishing At Jason's Lake

Journey to Jason’s Lake

We drove down narrow dirt roads, where sun-drops 

Splashed through the moss-draped arms of live oaks

To welcome us.

And fields of seasoned sunflowers lowered 

Their weighted hooked heads, as if to

Reverence this rite of passage.

We turned past tall patient bricks,

A fire hearth that long ago had cast itself, 

Strong and sure into the reels of time.

And we waded through wisps of luring laughter 

That taunted us to try our luck

As young ghosts of SeaCloud¹  once had.

When the car fished its way, jumping and wriggling 

Over the old footbridge, I imagined how other bare feet 

Had once sauntered over these wooden planks, 

With cane poles bobbing and lines dancing in the wind.

But now, it’s your turn to stand near the lakes edge, 

A lanky lad of fourteen years, silhouetted

By the drag of a still, summer day.

Your image hung against the southern sky 

Framed by marsh-grass and Egret’s flight

While tidewaters turn at your feet.

It’s your tale. Two young friends

Floundering with snarled lines 

Stolen bait, and gnats that buzz your resolve.

It’s your time. With your line cast and your tip low

The strike comes.

Then with a flash of scales, it wakes the water.

 Now you jerk to set the hook, and your stance stiffens 

As you fight the  unknown "monster of the deep."

Soon I hear you call out, “I got one!”

I watch and join in the excitement of the catch. 

You pull and turn this way and that, unsure

Until you arch your back and try once more.

Silently I savor the moment and I pray

That each time you cast,  you will wrap yourself 

six times around and back through 

Until your knot secure's itself 

Around the lake’s rain-dance, 

Around the Heron's flight, 

And around the joy that hooked us all

As we tried our luck rigging and jigging 

On Jason’s Lake.                

       Linda Conkey Shaw August 18, 2011

Erin's Pie In The Sky

Erin’s Pie in the Sky

The day started

With a deluge as

Water poured from the sky.

Deep from the night it began

And it ran and ran 

Down our streets and

Into our porch.

On into the late afternoon

It swam,

Filling our apartment and our hearts

With a soggy hope of deliverance.

But a thoughtful daughter

With a frame of beauty

Found in the kitchen

A place of refuge where

Damp doubt could not reach.

She took task and

Measured and cut

Butter into peas

Until she had transformed

Gloomy skies

Into a tartlet of shinny 

Round criss-crossed comfort.

That at the end of the day

Warmed all of our tummies

And our hearts

With the idea

That rain may wash

Through our hopes and our dreams

Or if we choose

It can wash away troubles

And renew us.

Like her flour and summer fruit

That turned us, all tart and sour

Into a circle of laughing,

yummy peach pie,

That smiled until

The clouds flew away

Like a flock of

Blackbirds

Linda Conkey Shaw July 28 2011

The summer has been filled with family, fun, hot sunshine, and moments when all seemed lost. But alas there is the role of family and how we can rely on someone to help us see what we will not. 
We were vacationing in a beach house when the "tropical" rainstorm managed to dump 8 inches of rain upon our island town. Electrical wires fell, water rose, roads were closed and eventually we were evicted from our rental because of sewer backups. 
We held it together and took the opportunity to ride our bikes in the rain, help Sam's lifeguard class find joy in the a battery powered radio, and soon after the sun came out (about 3) we were able to relocate our posse. And when we did we had such a wonderful 
pie to warm us. 
Thanks to Erin's culinary skills. 
Today marks her graduation from school and her movement on to new pathways. 
With love from Mom.