Nothing to crow about



Crow atop a fast food business

 Wherever you find road-kill, you probably find crows or ravens. Big, black, and raucous, they have a party that clears the refreshment table. Oh yes, they prefer “carrion,” not carry-out. (Sorry about the pun.) They apparently flunked Singing Class at Bird School, as I wouldn’t call their cawing “pretty.”

Even in the Bible, they were the “hoods” of the neighborhood. Unlike the sweet little sparrows that nested in the nooks of the temple, they weren’t known for good manners. Although Elijah was fed by such birds during his hideout time at the brook Cherith from King Ahab, to do so was against their natural inclinations. By instinct, they would have gobbled the food samples faster than a starved shopper at Costco. This, like Elijah’s other instant meals at the cave in the desert, was a miracle.

Another verse in the Bible that camps on their nasty behavior is a curious one in Proverbs about parents and children. I scratched my head over it many times until I started to do some investigating: “The eye that mocks a father, that scorns obedience to a mother, will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley, will be eaten by the vultures” (Proverbs 30:17).

Whatever did this gory verse mean? For eyes to be pecked out meant the body was left to scavenger birds. One Bible teacher noted that the Jews took dishonoring the family seriously. It was a disgrace to die violently and be denied a decent burial. Another said this connects to verse 11, which talks of “those who curse their fathers and do not bless their mothers, those who are pure in their own eyes.” In other words, they think they know it all and are beyond fault. Still another Bible teacher said the pecked-out eye referred to the inability to look at another with full and transparent attention.

I’ll leave it to question-and-answer time in Heaven to fully understand this verse. But I think it harkens back to one of the ten basic laws of life that God gave thousands of years ago: “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12).

My parents both died, of cancer and a heart attack, the year I was 31. In my twenties, as I transitioned out of adolescence and into responsible adulthood, I tried to honor them with words of appreciation and practical help. I tried not to take them for granted. I wanted them to see they’d successfully launched me into life as I pursued a career and served God through my church.

It’s dysfunctional families that this proverb addresses, and I pray for several families suffering in this way. And now, thanks to the word picture in Proverbs 30:17, I have an extra reminder to pray—whenever I hear that grating, annoying bird caw.