Roadkill.

Everyday thousands of drivers zoom along their days on crowded highways, perhaps only faintly registering the splatter of tissue, fur, feathers, talons, meat, and blood. Always blood.

Blood stains our highways like urban sacrifices, but many of us have become so used to the idea on a subconscious level–for some it may be more conscious–that this is OUR world, OUR streets, OUR highways, OUR right to kill whatever creature gets in OUR way. It’s a demented form of dominion borne of insecurity, pride, loss and a totally wack psychology called survival of the freaking fittest. Man, I want to stuff that psychology back into the ass of the demon’s mouth it came out of.

When Yeshua was teaching & revealing the Kingdom of God (specifically in Matthew chapter 6), He basically said, “Dudes, stop being in survival worry mode. Life is so not about that ish. Man, the birds and flowers are cared for by our Dad. You’re kinda more precious to our Dad than they, so don’t you think He’s got your back?? Stop wasting time on all this survival stuff, don’t be enslaved to that kind of cutthroat kingdom. You’re part of another Kingdom, find that Kingdom.”

Okay, back to the Roadkill thing. See, the human spirit knows that it was created to have authority and dominion over this planet and the creation that blooms upon it. Our spirit knows we are alive for more than survival. Because our dominion of planet earth is a principle of God established by Creator God when He Created. (P.S. The principles of God established by His Word cannot ever be undone because His Word can never cease to create. Existence would collapse and there would be a more-than-nothing. This will be elaborated upon in another post.)

Elohim said,

“Let’s make a creature that carries our DNA. And that DNA is creative/creating. So this new never-before-seen unique creature we’ll call A-dam, Man. And A-dam will have the authority, wisdom, compassion, creative power, righteousness to have dominion over all the other creatures and this ecosystem called Earth that We’ve birthed.”

Elohim went on to bless A-dam with a creative impulse, with the desire to reproduce, have dominion, rule and reign. He spoke it into our God-DNA when He said:

“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” -Genesis 1:28

And all of this was good, so good. And those aren’t my words, those are God’s. “He saw that it was good” appears again and again in Genesis 1.

But then A-dam and Eve fell into deception, and they created a fatal opening for the prideful jealous fallen Lucifer to come in and subject the entire human race to death, survival mode, subjection, slavery, barbarism, and just…BAD. And Sa-tan began to feed us lies. Lies, lies, lies. Lies that infected everything, because lies are like leaven…they spread like gossip, like a virus, like a rumor, like the paparazzi, like a meme, like pollution, like the National Enquirer, like blood on highways. The lies even enslaved a third of heaven’s host, who dwelt with Elohim, who no doubt stood in the presence of God’s glory, and still chose to turn their backs. Don’t underestimate the treachery of lies or the progenitor of them. (It still stuns me, the nature of God’s Love that gives us and the angels free will.)

Fast forward (though not really according to eternity’s standards) to today. To cars and A-dams zooming around this planet, killing creation without a second thought but under the leaven-lie that we are the ish. We are macho macho man humans, the only animal with the ability to think, speak, feel because evolution chose us, yes we are the chosen species in an existence that is totally completely ruled by the principle of survival of the fittest, yea. Oh yea. We are evolutionary wonders, look at us, haha, too bad little porcupine you just lost the game of evolution, your puny little spikes can’t compete with my big badass Escalade with the spinning bling bling rims, HA! I WIN!

We’ve all been tainted by this unfeeling prideful mentality in one form or another.

But dominion is much gentler, humbler, kinder; much more compassionate and serving and kingly and sorrowful–and much more fierce.

So, here’s the story of the Ducks:

Two ducks flew to Southern California in search of warmer weather
They returned to the same little community every year, the one
with a little ravine next to it called Santiago Creek

The humans who lived here were kind and liked to take walks with their dogs and children.

This year Mr. & Mrs. Duck found the front lawn of one of the human’s dwelling (yes, my lawn)
to be quite comfortable and amenable to their needs.

They would stroll over to the front lawn in the late afternoon,
after their daily swim in the ravine.

They would camp there for the night, Mr. Duck keeping watch as the
the careful headlights of one of the humans would turn down the street
late at night when the human returned home from school.

The human was always careful to step quietly so as not to
alarm Mrs. Duck.

In the mornings, Mr. and Mrs. Duck would take their time before
strolling to the ravine; sometimes the humans would come out and
give them some bread.

The humans began to form affection for Mr. and Mrs. Duck. A kindness
and consideration of the wild pair. There was a peace and a sweetness
to the ducks daily visits and nightly stays. A mutual respect and understanding
that indeed the earth was big enough for them all.

But this fragile connection was violently ruptured one morning when
the human who would step quietly at night stepped briskly
out of her house to be met with a ghastly sight:

there, on the street in front of their house was
a bloody mess of meat, wings, and brown feathers.

The human was overcome with sorrow as the realization
dawned on her that the bloody massacre in front of her
was all that remained of Mrs. Duck.

Oh the violence and the injustice of it all!
Poor Mrs. Duck! Poor Mr. Duck!
All they had been created for was to enjoy the ravine, the grass, the strolls, the warm sun;
and all of this had been stolen so unfeelingly from them by the blind
tires of a moving careless man-operated-machine in a matter of seconds.

Such is a world fallen to survival alone, that has lost sight of a
humble thing, a necessary thing, a thing that lets ducks stroll…

So, yes, I was really torn up about Mrs. Duck. Mr. Duck hasn’t been seen anywhere since. Seriously, even as I think about this now I’m tearing up. Sure, today it’s just a duck. Just a possum. But it’s still death; God paid such a price to defeat death, yet we take its occurrence so casually. Surely something’s wrong with this picture.

I suppose this incident reality-checked me into how our busyness, our self-involvement, our self-centeredness can cause such unnecessary death, and that this too is a sin against our Creator, especially if we have been restored to our former dominion, totally freed from enslavement to Sa-tan to implement our authority over this planet.

All life, no matter how small, longs to live, to be fruitful, to multiply. Longs to live peacefully, happily, contentedly. This is why roadkill breaks my heart. It might be an odd and trivial thing, but here’s this unassuming little innocent creature just la-di-da walking on it’s little ol’ way trying to do what it was created to do and bring its Creator glory when suddenly BAM! DEAD!

It’s perverse.

I’m not pointing the finger or condemning every person who has ever run over a creature unwittingly. I have. A possum. I was hysterical, upset, and driving early one morning after a night of hard partying (this was in another lifetime) and a fight with a loved one, and I was talking on the phone and I ran over a possum. Reckless driving does kill.

Sigh. I’m sorry if this post is depressing a little bit. But I’m in mourning. For ducks. For roadkill. For life that we don’t think twice about when it is obliterated from this planet. For creation that is groaning and in such pain. For us because, on most days, I don’t think to mourn for all the things that die, not even a little bit. Most days, I’m too consumed with surviving and getting my task list accomplished that I don’t truly truly let myself sit with God’s heart for creation, His sorrow for all the things that slip through our hands that are imbued with the DNA, Love, Power and Peace of God.

I don’t think we were meant for such desensitized survival. So, here’s to you Ducks.

Whoever is righteous regards the life of his animal, but even the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. Proverbs 12:10.