A Tender Heart

        I do not understand why God has allowed me to see, three times so far, a hawk go flying by the window of my car as he carries away some poor little creature struggling for his last moments of life hoping to escape the clutches of the enemy. God knows how much I love animals, something I inherited from my dad and his love for all kinds of creatures. I spent many hours as a girl tending to all sorts of animals. Some of them I found sick and though I did everything I knew how to help them get better, I often found myself burying them in the small animal graveyard in the woods out behind our house. Others I rescued from a predator, or found lost and alone without their mamas.  Sometimes it was a bird that had hit the window and needed a few moments to clear his foggy brain. These usually mended well from their mishaps and I was always excited to release them to their natural habitat, hoping I would one day see them again eating at the feeder.  
        So, I must admit that each time I witness this horrible 'hawk event' - three times now! I am always traumatized for days after. I have a hard time getting that mental image out of my head and I try to figure out if there was anything I could have done to stop the hawk from taking off with his dinner. Yes, I know that hawks have to eat too, but I often wonder why God had to create creatures to feel pain and fear. It is pretty obvious that He gave them these feelings in order to save their life - if they did not have any fear then there might not be any left because they would not know when to run away from the dangers that lurked overhead. But couldn't God have given them only a little bit of that fear and pain feeling? There is nothing sadder than having my kitty look at me with a pained expression, like she expects me to take it away. A little baby cannot understand why they feel the way they do when they are sick or hurt. There is no way to explain to them what is going on and that it is all a part of life. We only can do what we can to make them comfortable and soothe their questioning minds with soft whispers of love in their ear. 
        I got to thinking about the people around us and how they are like that little squirrel that was snatched away so quickly by the enemy. If I have such a soft, caring heart for a little squirrel, then should not my heart be as tender toward the people of the world that have an even bigger, more dangerous enemy lurking to snatch them away? The devil walks around this earth like a lion, searching whom he may devour. He knows he is not going to win in the end, but he is working as hard as he can to take down as many people as possible because he does not want to go alone. He does not want anyone to surrender their life to Christ because it means he will be down in his count. 
        I need to have the eyes of Christ and view the people of this world as He views them - needing a Savior, Who can and will rescue them from the clutches of the "hawk." My prayer today is that the Lord will make my heart as tender for the people He has created as it is tender for the animals He created.