In neither plant nor animal life is nature an option but rather an intrinsic law. Flower and vegetable gardens and all forms of plant life are glorified in their respective beauty and diversity, as every species of animal life is likewise admired in its respective category of excellence. Mankind alone, supposedly the most intelligent of all created beings, uses that intellect to divide himself racially, socially, economically, politically and into a multitude of age, gender, religious and/or any other fragmentation which may be, and subsequently are easily pit against one another. The theory is as old as time itself, “divide and conquer.” How else can a chosen few continue to control the masses as history so clearly records?
Infants are easily controlled with childhood fears and fantasies as was mankind in its infancy. But the adult must be controlled by more progressive, mature fear generated through pure love¬ as: fear of betraying trust, losing respect and admiration or hurting a loved one or others through chicanery, ego or power-tripping which have no boundaries and anything goes!
True unity in diversity was first epitomized for me through a Baha’i Faith children’s book that emphasized the many parts of the human body (ie. skiin, hair, eyes, nails, arteries, fluids flesh, bones, etc.,) all differing widely in shape, color, substance, function, etc., with none superior or inferior to the other, yet each dependent upon the proper function of the other for a perfect whole. This is how mankind must likewise be viewed if we are to purify the motives and maximize the results of the advanced scientific and technological knowledge of a faster-maturing society.
In mankind’s young adulthood information could more easily be kept “top secret” than today! But with today’s even more advanced technology confidentiality and accuracy of information being released from our nation’s Capitol is yet questionable. Whether laws of God, man, nature or gravity, however, those who transgress or persist in violating or defying them should be prepared to accept and suffer the consequences–a lesson that I am finding easier to come to grips with¬–now that I am too old for judges and other officials to want to hear it.
From the wit and wisdom of TV Minister McBath out of Norfolk one Sunday morning some years back I recall his mentioning: “If you jump from a window several stories high, it really doesn’t matter if you don’t believe in gravity. The law of gravity is going to automatically kick in and you’re going to get badly hurt–if not killed!
Nature likewise has many laws that, when defied can create havoc and, as with the laws of gravity, God is no respecter of persons and positions when His laws are persistently broken. Someone is going to get hurt. This is not to imply that those living within His laws are safe from trials and ill fate. It simply states that there is a big difference between tests and punishment that a true believer can tell by the weight of the punishment–that you carry alone!
One of my favorite Baha’i prayers begins: I have wakened in Thy Shelter, Oh, my God; and it behooveth him that seeketh that Shelter to abide within the Sanctuary of Thy protection and the stronghold of Thy defense…”Regardless of what pathway one chooses to the One God (by whatever Name), if we wish to be sheltered from the darts and acids of an insensitive society, we must “..abide within the Sanctuary of His Defense! Just remember: Our inability or refusal to accept TRUTH does not change truth–only OUR lives!
