Rev. Reed Lee Pedersen's
This past Sunday was Good Shepherd Sunday. Jesus equates us to sheep. “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.” (John 10:27-28) This got me randomly wondering if that means our Christian spirit animal is a sheep. I am not too fond of sheep. In growing up with them I found them to be quite dumb and a pain in the rear end to show at the Greene County Fair. Inspired by my lackluster feeling towards sheep I sought out to find my spirit animal. Identifying a spirit animal is based off a religion called animism. This path I am going down is not asking people to turn away from our one and true Savior, Jesus Christ. I am not trying to turn us all into heretics. Instead, I want us to think about what animal represents our personality and life and how that affects the way we worship God and share God’s love with the world. Now there are a lot of websites like the one I visited which talk about spirit animals. They have a list of all the spiritual animals and they even have a fun quiz to help you figure out what your spirit animal might be. The questions range from social habits to personality traits. Upon completing my quiz I found out my spirit animal is a hummingbird. The website has this to say about what that means, “The hummingbird spirit animal symbolizes the enjoyment of life and lightness of being. Those who have the hummingbird as a totem are invited to enjoy the sweetness of life, lift up negativity wherever it creeps in and express love more fully in their daily endeavors. This fascinating bird is capable of the most amazing feats despite its small size, such as traveling great distances or being able to fly backwards. By affinity with the hummingbird, those who have this bird as totem may be encouraged to develop their adaptability and resiliency while keeping a playful and optimistic outlook.” Now you could read this as some sort of pseudo-paganism religion. I find it more interesting to think about this in light of my relationship with God. Perhaps, as a hummingbird I am called to share God’s love through lightening the mood of others. Maybe there are some great things God has in store for me to do for the world for God’s sake. Whatever it is, being a hummingbird could mean I have the ability to change into whatever the Holy Spirit needs me to be for God. Points to Ponder: Take a spirit animal quiz.
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AuthorPastor Reed is a first call pastor at Augustana Lutheran Church in Andover, Illinois. Archives
July 2019
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