It’s not what you are thinking.
Related, I suppose, but the insight I am pondering is broader than libidinal instinct.
The topic for our monthly creation conscious worship experience yesterday afternoon was surviving winter, and breaking away from the warming flames emanating from the fire pit, we began our “wonder wander” near the chicken yard to ponder how the chickens do it. There are physiological processes that benefit the birds, but behavioral choices conspicuously save the day - and the nights. Despite the fact that there are two available coops between which the chickens could spread out it spacious comfort, during the winter months they unanimously opt to crowd into a single one, and it the smaller of the two. They keep each other warm.
From there we sauntered back to the bee hives - a proximity we don’t, in more active seasons, so blithely risk - to consider their winter survival. There is no heater nearby moderating their environment, nor have I added insulation to the hive boxes. The bees, we learned, benefit as well from some physiological modifications, but mostly, like the chickens, from behavioral ones: they form themselves into something of a ball at the center of the hive - huddling together, as it were. From there they are constantly trading positions - those on the outer portions of the ball moving inward toward the warmer center, while those duly warmed migrate out to the edges; a circulation constantly underway so that everyone takes its turn; everyone does it’s part.
Walking back toward the fire where our own warming could resume by the flames and each other’s company we considered the prairie grasses beneath our feet and what strategies are built into DNA for surviving Iowa winters. Going deep is certainly key - roots that, like the frost-free hydrants supplying water to farms all over the Midwest, descend safely beneath the average frost line to remain viable. But just as the grasses create a dense weave on the surface of the soil, their roots are surely as supportively communal under ground.
What wisdom were we to glean from nature’s classroom? Perhaps, quite simply, what God’s own voice pronounced in the very beginning: “It’s not good for the muddy one to be alone,” - a declaration almost certainly more than matrimonial. The sage in the book of Ecclesiastes boiled it down to this: “If two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone?"
This, the birds and the bees and the grasses understand - even the logs in the fire itself. The great musical theologian, Jack Johnson, sang it this way: “It’s better when we’re together.”
Birds, bees, grasses and poets. It’s the rest of us who can’t quite grasp the point.
It’s common, of late in matters of public self-identification, to indicate one’s preferred pronouns. But most of the time we deceive. In contrast to the “he”, “she”, “they” we routinely assert, the too-common truth is “I, me, mine.”
For the many of us who self-identify (beyond our pronouns) as “Christian”, we should know better - never mind the embarrassing and contradicting, misspent public face that name increasingly wears. The Christian life, according to Jesus and those who wrote about “the Way,” is plural. “Love your neighbor as yourself,” Jesus described as the penultimate commandment,” and “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
Or this quick recap of the New Testament letters:
From the12th, 13th, 14th and 15th chapters of the book of Romans:
From 1 Corinthians and Galatians:• “Love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.”
• “Live in harmony with one another.”
• “Owe no one anything, except to love one another.”
• “Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of another.”
• “Live in harmony with one another...”
• “Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you.
• “When you come together to eat, wait for one another.”
• “Through love become slaves to one another.”
• “Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.”
From Ephesians and Colossians:
• “Bear with one another in love.”
• “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.”
• “Do not lie to one another.”
• “As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”
• “Teach and admonish one another in all wisdom”
From 1Thessalonians, James and 1 Peter:
• “Encourage one another.”
• “Do not grumble against one another.”
• “Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another.”
• “Be hospitable to one another without complaining. Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.”
From 1 John:
• “Have fellowship with one another.”
• “Love one another.”
• “Lay down our lives for one another.”
“One anothering.” It is pretty common wisdom and instruction - in the first Bible that is creation, and the second Bible that is printed.
The birds do it. The bees do it. The grasses and their roots do it.
A modest proposal for the rehabilitation of our diseased culture: perhaps we should do it, too.
