I met this beauty early yesterday morning on the wall outside my door. I was on my way to work but had to stop and say hello. Wow! The intricate details on its wings, the colors. Its wingspan was as wide as my hand! I was in awe of its beauty. Every line, every pattern was craftily designed by the hand of the Master of original designs Himself. I tried not to disturb it as I took a picture of it, uttering a brief word of prayer to God for sharing His creation with me.
As I descended the stairs from the 3rd floor to the 2nd floor, I met this tiny beauty whose length was shorter than my pinky finger.
I stopped to say hello, and took its picture. Oh, what a beautiful morning to begin my day with God’s creation, great and small. Of course, in this day of social media, I found myself eagerly sharing my pictures on Facebook. Several friends commented and liked the pictures. One of my sisters wanted to know the species, because to her, the second insect looked like a raisin! I didn’t know but promised to find out.
Ten hours later, my raisin friend was gone but my first friend was still there. Its wings were no longer stretched out against the wall but seemed poised for flight, its wings protruding from the wall. It graciously allowed me another photo shoot, undisturbed by my curiosity.
We said goodnight and I entered my apartment. My hope was that it would still be there in the morning.
Later in the evening, I checked my Facebook and another friend of 14 years, “Cowboy” Wayne Powell who lives in Brooklyn, NY, left a comment and told me to download the iNaturalist app to help me in my search.
The following morning around 5 am, I downloaded the app. I uploaded pictures and was very excited to learn that it could be a Tulip-tree Silkmoth. While busy with the app and learning about my new friend, I heard a voice say, “someone is going to kill it.”
This didn’t sink in until three hours later when I walked out my front door, and lo and behold, there was the culprit, one of my neighbors, sitting in his wheelchair, his face scowling, a dark foreboding figure. (I try to avoid him because each time he sees me, he speeds up to catch up with me. I avoid getting on the elevator with him, his stares and leers are unwelcoming by me. There have been times when I have been going up the stairs and he parks his wheelchair beneath the stairs, glaring lecherously up at me. I have told him about his rude behavior, needless to say we are definitely not friends.)
The moth was on the ground, lifeless & I asked “what did you do?”
He looked at me with a smirk on his face, as if he thought I would approve of his actions. “I killed it.” I was shocked, livid. I found myself raising my voice, eyes to the ceiling, arms flailing. “Are you kidding me? Why? Why did you do it? Do you know what that was?” It’s a special moth (to me anyway). He responded, “well I only sprayed it with deodorant. It won’t die.” From the look on his face, it was clear that he was not prepared for my disapproval.
Unbelievable. I hastily turned and rushed down the stairs, trying to get away from his disgusting presence.
As I drove to work, I found myself shaking. And yes, I started talking out loud to God, the One who sees all and knows all. “Dad, how dare he kill that moth? It was clearly minding its own business. I am sure everyone who walked the hall of the third floor that day, either didn’t see the moth, ignored the moth or kept going on his/her way.
Yet, this man made the decision to stop and selfishly end a life. The audacity of a person to determine what is deserving of life. When a person does not know #thevalueoflife, they snuff it out senselessly, ignorantly, foolishly, cruelly.
Y’all, #everylifematters. All creatures, great and small. Since the foundation of the world, God gave mankind an edict, a mandate to care for the earth and all of its inhabitants. All people matter, every life has value. It does not matter what we look like, what language we speak, how much money we have or do not have, what religion we espouse to, or the things we foolishly think belongs to us.
The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein,
All lives matter. I will say in this time of social and civil unrest, during this time of increased violence across the globe, all lives matter, and yes black lives matter.
If you don’t know, now you know!