NEIGHBOR TO NEIGHBOR!

 ‘Social Weaver Bird Colony Nest’ photo by Axel Tschentscher, is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

The ‘Book of Nature’ has many inspiring examples of critters living in proximity to each other for protection, care and nurturing of one another and breeding.   In fact, as I think about it, most animals, birds, insects and fish live in groups.  We even made-up names to call these groups.  We are familiar with some, but not many.  For instance, lions live in a ‘pride’, wolves live in a ‘pack’.  Geese live in a ‘gaggle’, crows in a ‘MURDER’!!!  Turkeys in a ‘gang’.  Ants live in a ‘colony’, termites in a ‘brood’, fish in a ‘school’.                                                                    

And this is an extremely short list.  You can view a more complete list at the end of this post. 

The Social Weaver Bird whose nest is pictured above inspired me to write this post.  Their nest can be 100 years old, weigh up to 1000 pounds and be home for up to 400 birds!!!
It looks like a giant haystack with a thatched roof.  The thatch keeps the nest warm in the winter and cool in the summer.  It is built by these sparrow-like birds, one twig at a time. They live in the arid or semi-arid regions of Namibia and South Africa.  Each hole in the nest is a passage into a chamber that is home to a pair of birds where they snuggle together for warmth, incubate their eggs and care for their young.  The vast number of birds provide protection for the nest and increase foraging efficiency.

Robert from storyateverycorner.com who shared this information about the Social Weaver Bird wrote, ‘Social Weavers help their neighbors with food, childcare and household chores – as good neighbors do in tight communities.  They all survive and thrive in healthy nests and healthy communities.’   Remember the quote from Job?  ‘But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the BIRDS in the sky, and they will tell you;’  Job 12:7.  What are they telling us?  Perhaps they are saying, as are all the other animals, insects and fish that living in a ‘tight community’ is a good thing.  This is what the scriptures say:

‘All the believers were one in heart and mind.  No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.  With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them.  For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.’  
Acts 4:32-35.  Wasn’t the ‘great power’ and ‘God’s grace that was ‘so powerfully at work in the apostles’ in part a result of this community living?  Do those living in a Kibbutz in Israel, the Amish or the Mennonites have the right idea?

I don’t know about you, but I’m rather reclusive as an artist.  But I must admit that several things lately have inspired me to think about my neighbors.  I find myself wondering how they are and concerned when an ambulance or fire truck zooms through my neighborhood.  How about you?

Could Christians band together and offer to pray for and lend support in any way they can for their neighbors?  I’m thinking about calling it NEIGHBOR TO NEIGHBOR!!!

The idea is a follow-up to my last post which declared Christians to be ‘POWERHOUSES’ which we are, right?  How about offering our ‘powerhouse’ selves to our neighbors for prayer and support and fulfill Jesus’ second greatest commandment to ‘Love our neighbors as ourselves’.

What do you think?  

ARE YOU WITH ME?

Do yourself a gigantic favor and click on the following link to watch the trailer for a movie called, ‘Ordinary Angels’.   A remarkable true story of a little girl in need and a community’s efforts to meet that need.  As one author put it, ‘Ordinary Angels’ is a movie about how we can love our neighbors’. 

The following is a fascinating list of the names of various groups of animals, birds, fish and insects:

Mammal	Animal Group Names
apes	shrewdness
badgers	cete
bats	colony, camp, cloud (in flight)
bears	sleuth, sloth
camels	caravan, train, scorn
cats	clowder
dogs	pack
donkeys	drove
elephants	parade
elk	gang
ferrets	business, fesnyng
foxes	skulk
giraffes	tower
gorillas	troop
hippopotami	pod, bloat
horses	team, harras
hyenas	clan, cackle
kangaroos	mob, troop, court
lemurs	conspiracy
leopards	leap, prowl
lions	pride
moles	labor, company, movement
monkeys	troop, barrel
otters	bevy, family, romp, raft (when floating together)
oxen	team, yoke
pigs	drift, drove
porcupines	prickle
rabbits	colony, fluffle
rats	pack, colony, swarm, mischief
rhinoceroses	crash
skunks	surfeit
squirrels	scurry, dray
tigers	ambush, streak
whales	pod, gam
wolves	pack
zebras	dazzle, zeal

Bird	Collective Noun
crow	murder, mob
doves	dule
eagles	convocation, soar
falcons	cast, kettle, bazaar
flamingos	flamboyance, stand, colony
geese	gaggle
herons	sedge, siege
owls	parliament, congress, wisdom
parrots	pandemonium, company
ravens	unkindness, conspiracy
starlings	murmuration
swans	bevy, wedge (in flight)
turkeys	rafter, gang
turtle doves	pitying

Animal	Animal Group Names
fish	school, shoal
frogs	army
jellyfish	smack
sea stars	galaxy
sharks	shiver, frenzy
stingrays	fever
toads	knot

Insect/Bug	Collective Noun
ants	colony, army
bees	swarm
butterflies	kaleidoscope, flutter
caterpillars	army
cockroaches	intrusion
dragonflies	flight, cluster
flies	cloud
grasshoppers	cluster, cloud
hornets	nest, bike
ladybugs	loveliness
locusts	plague
mosquitoes	scourge
moths	eclipse
scorpions	nest, bed
spiders	cluster, clutter
termites	brood

OUR INSPIRATION!

‘Gray-headed Social Weaver’ photo by Neil Strickland is licensed under CC BY 2.0.