(FYI: I have a special opportunity to improve your Bible reading right after this story!)

My wife and I have been watching a collection of Nat Geo documentary mini-series called "Secrets of the Zoo" about the inter-workings of zoos. One series took place in Sydney, Australia, and two in the States--Columbus and Tampa. And we just discovered there's another series that takes place in North Carolina!

The shows have sucked us in even though it essentially recycles four plots over and over again:

• A new animal is being introduced
• An animal gets pregnant / has a baby
• An animal has a birthday party
• An animal is sick

It's that last one that's typically the most fascinating. And not because the vets are working to solve problems in obscure creatures. No, it's fascinating to watch the keepers react to their animal being sick.

In the several episodes we've seen, I don't think there has been a time where a zookeeper keeps a dry eye when an animal in their care is brought into the hospital. It's fascinating to see how much people can bond with wild animals in their care, from rhinos to chimps to lizards to funny-looking birds.

A recent episode featured a black rat snake with lumps and skin issues. After taking a biopsy, the vet determined the snake in question had a cancerous tumor. There was nothing they could do. Surgery would be impossible.

The snake's keeper and hospital staff decided that for the snake to have the best quality of life, it would have to be euthanized. Euthanizing an animal is always sad--the show had featured plenty of sick animals euthanized because living would be too painful. But for me, it was different. I mean, Indiana Jones and I are on the same page about snakes--we don't like them!

Yet the keeper cried over the decision to put down a snake, a snake she had bonded with for years. She even held the snake close as his life drifted away, saying it would comfort him to have her face be the last thing he saw. The keeper was balling, and the hospital staff also reflected the somber mood.

Personally, I don't get choked up about the death of a snake. These nasty little scary guys don't tug at my heartstrings. Yet, the unlovable creature was loved. The keeper knew the snake in the way I will never (hopefully) know a snake. The keeper saw a creature to be loved.

It strikes me that I make the same kind of judgments with people. I can say I love all people, but really I categorize people as the cute koalas and the sneaking snakes, so to speak. There are plenty of people I have a really hard time loving.

Lucky for us--and I mean #blessed times 400--God loves all of us. The ugly ones, cute ones, cuddling ones, or the slimy ones. God is an equal-opportunity lover. God doesn't operate with our tinted glasses that make snap judgments about people and things. God, like the snake keeper, sees past the scales at our inherent value.

It's amazing. Zookeepers will ball their eyes out when a dangerous creature that could easily kill them on a whim is in pain. Or when a hideous beast with a face only a blind mother could love is dying. Or when a black rat snake must be euthanized.

That's love right there. Like, that's the kind of love God has for us and we should all aspire to. God loves the snakes--both the creatures and the humans who we discount. And it's our duty to grow in that kind of love. I believe it all starts with changing our perspective on what or who can be loved.

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SOME NEWS

Last week, I spoke in Keith Ferrin's BibleLife Community, a membership that helps people become better students of the Bible by improving how we read and engage with Scripture. I talked about both the tools of biblical scholarship and creativity--it was a blast!

The membership gives you access to the Tuesday Talks (with guests way cooler than me), his Relational Bible Study course, and tons more resources. And it's actually just $10 a month. This is a steal because Keith is a wealth of knowledge (fun fact: he can recite from memory several books of the Bible)! However, you can join for just $1 for one week to see what's what. Click here to check it out for yourself (and I'll get a small kickback if you purchase).

If you know you need to get more into the Word, but don't know how, the BibleLife Community is a fantastic opportunity.

Friends, Romans, countrymen--I'll be back next week.

Jake Doberenz