Adaptation

We are the product of our environment. Well not entirely, but partly. A water lily is nothing without a swamp. Moths fly in the night (most of them do). Some trees grow on virtually nothing. The water Ouzel (American Dipper) sings in the middle of fierce rapids and frigid blizzards. There are beautiful colored butterflies in the desert. Flowers grow in mud.

But it is not all good, the swamp is mostly gunk and slime (not a scientific description). The night is dark and when scary things happen. The crags and cliffs and precipices and crevasses are ominous. The torrents and rapids are relentless and brutal. The blizzard claims the lives of all, except a few hardy things. The desert is mostly sand and wind. The mud is brown and dirty.

Each of the good things has in it something special that can respond to the environment in a way that will make its little world better. Likewise we as Christians, can have something in us that helps to make the dark cold world we live in better. Something inside us. It is a force greater than natural selection. It is the gospel. Through the gospel we can make any area we live in bright.

It is true then that we are a product of our environment. We cannot help it. But we are able to choose whether we will be part of the bad part of the environment or the good. There are mosquitoes in the forest and there are butterflies.