Manatees

Cold weather means that the Orange River is filled with Manatees! Around dusk and dawn, you’ll literally find hundreds floating around the power plant because the facility discharges clean, warm water. It’s been shown that manatee mothers even teach their calves to return to these specific locations to stay warm. For them, it’s like a spa.

Recently, I went kayaking out on the river. There were so many manatees that I could barely put my oar in the water without hitting one. Once the initial amazement wore off, I noticed that every manatee wore on their back scars caused by boat propellers. It was not just one or two manatees; it was all of them. Once I noticed the scars, the beauty of my surroundings began to take on a dull color.  Suddenly, kayaking was no longer fun. What was once a giant majestic animal, became a devastating victim of our recreational enjoyment.

For the record, I love boaters and boating… I was simply shocked by witnessing so many manatee backs lacerated. After some research, I found that, according to Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, 95% of adult manatees have watercraft-related scars. It is rare for an adult manatee to not have been struck multiple times in its life. I guess it has just become an unsurprising normality. Manatees are in the way, so we hit them. Afterall, if it bothered them so much, then they wouldn’t keep coming back.

See… this is what we do. When we notice something is wrong, first we normalize it. Then, we justify it. All manatees get hit by propellers multiple times, so it’s no big deal. Or it is the manatee’s fault for being in the way, therefore it’s no big deal. Overtime and little by little, wrong behaviors become tolerable behaviors, which then become expected behaviors. Eventually, we’ll see nothing wrong with hitting manatees.

It seems the hundreds of “idle” signs along the shallow waterways are not working. It would be ridiculous for anyone to ask that boating be outlawed for the sake of the manatees. This is not about shaming boaters. My only request is simple… that we continue to notice the scars. We live in a broken world, with harm all around us. We can’t fix everything, but we can notice.

Jesus did a lot of amazing things. He healed at least eight blind men, cleansed lepers, cured the sick, restored the crippled, and raised at least three people from the dead. Yet Jesus left the world still broken. How many people did Jesus encounter that remained uncured and unhealed? This is not belittling Jesus’ miraculous ministry; this is demonstrating the point that there will always be brokenness. We can’t fix everything, but we can notice.

Our Christian faith is about having the eyes to see the pain and struggle of those around us. If someone says to me “what about the pain of this person, or that person?” My response is “yes, their pain counts too.” Even the minnows that circle the manatees have value. Their pain is worth our notice.

My beloveds, do not fret. The scars on the back of this world do not apply to God’s Kingdom. In God’s vision, there is no one person’s pleasure at someone else’s expense. There is room for all, room for every person and every creature to swim freely. In God’s Kingdom, there is room for you. There is room for me. There is room for every fish in the sea.

With oar in hand,

Pastor Lucas