TWO-LEGGED ANIMALS

There is a Latin phrase (ani-mac bi-pes im-plu-me), which means a two-legged animal without feathers (i.e. the human race). This is what separates us from chickens, crows, hawks, hummingbirds and woodpeckers; they have two legs with feathers. Then again, nothing with four legs has feathers but no distinction needs to be made such as a four-legged animal without feathers. It is only we two-legged that need the clarity.

In the Genesis account, the second day of creation was to separate the upper and lower oceans in the dome (firmament), the fifth day features the creation of birds to fly across the dome. These creatures are all feathered and are called “winged birds of every kind” and I suppose they are all two-legged. It doesn’t say they are, but a bird is a bird. They are given a blessing just like humans to “be fruitful and multiply… multiply on the earth.” When the same blessing is given to humans, we are told to “be fruitful and multiply… and have dominion over the birds of the air.”

So, as a two-legged being without feathers, we are just like birds except we don’t have wings and feathers and can’t fly. All we have is dominion “over everything on the face of the earth.” Then again, maybe we are not animals at all, but because we are “in the image of God” that means we are “man” and that God does not have feathers either. I personally think feathers would be as attractive as hair and is probably why feathers have been a part of human dress and decoration since the beginning.

I’m off to the other side of the Pond to have some Cuban Coffee, Snickerdoodle Cookies and Vanilla Yogurt and dream some more about how to fly.

“Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns.” Jesus