The careless ostrich.
Each creature has its own distinctive features determined for it by the wisdom and conferred on it by the power of God. Some of these features are not attractive, nor what we should have selected if we had had the ordering of creation. They are the more significant on this account, because they show us the more clearly that nature is not ordered according to our thought, and yet the whole description shows that it is ordered well, and for a grand total result of life far beyond anything we could have imagined. Now, we have the special characteristics of the ostrich sketched with a master-hand in view of these considerations.
I. EXCELLENCES. Here is no caricature, exaggerating eccentricities. Though what look like the defects of the ostrich are to be referred to, its goodly wings are first mentioned. Let us see merit wherever we can. In giving blame, let us not condemn wholesale. Although all may not be as we should wish, let us generously acknowledge that all is not bad. It is better to admire the good in the world than to be only on the look out for the evil. We shall be more helpful friends if we rejoice to lay hold of what is admirable in others, and seek this first, instead of pouncing upon the ugly faults, like vultures who have eyes for nothing but carrion.
II. DEFECTS. The ostrich is not perfect, according to man's idea of perfection. There are defects in nature, and these defects are not ignored in the natural theology of "Job;" It is wiser to admit them frankly than to gloss them over. Although they may not be the principal characteristics, they startle us by their very existence, The ostrich appears to be lacking in maternal care; it is a foolish creature, leaving its eggs without imagining the danger they are in of being trampled on by the wild animals of the desert. God is leading nature on to perfection, but it is not yet perfect. The law of nature, like that of man, is progress, not stationary completeness.
III. COMPENSATIONS. Things are not so bad with the ostrich as they appear to us at first sight. Although the ostrich-eggs are left in the sand, they do not perish as the eggs of most birds under ordinary circumstances would do. Beneath the tropical heat of the sun they can be deserted during the day, the bird returning to sit on them at night. Thus by the wonderful balancing of influences in nature the careless maternity of the ostrich does not seriously endanger its offspring. If God has not given the bird wisdom, it does not need it. So long as we keep to the lines that God has laid down, we shall see that most defects have ample compensation in other directions. The culpable carelessness is that which goes against the laws of God; the fatal folly is that which departs from his ways. This carelessness and this folly are not found in the ostrich; they are only seen in man.—W.F.A.