We went to the zoo, last Friday for one last “hooray” before Jeremiah started his first full week of Kindergarten. We were looking at the Rhinoceros Hornbill. It’s a bird with a huge orange potrusion above its beak. I guess he is self-concious about it and feels he cannot attract a female Rhinoceros Hornvill no other way than to seal her up in the hollow of a tree with a mixture of mud, feces and ground-up insects. In seriousness, this is their nesting pattern.
The female stays in her hollow with the chicks while the male hunts for and brings them food through a slit in the seal. Isn’t he chivalrous!! This is the best part… what the male gets in return is feces the female passes back to him for disposal. In other words… He takes out the trash.
We laughed and lauged at this while at the zoo and I laughed and laughed as I shared it with my friends later. I really got to thinking about how odd their nesting & domestic habits are. In the human species, we have some odd habits as well. As strange as all this may seem to us, I’m sure the Rhinoceros Hornbills have a reason for why they do it this way. Maybe it is for safety. Maybe it is the way the female prefers it. Who knows??
What is for sure is that they each have their part in it for the survival of the chicks. They depend on one another. What if the male decides to not hunt or share it with his family? What if the female decides she is tired of being encased and came out or refused to accept food from the male because she was mad at him for encasing her? What if the male decided to refuse to dispose of the poop?
There are many scenarios in which this odd nesting routine could break down. We know there are many scenarios in which human marriages can break down. Marriage can be messy or “poopy”. Is it worth it? YES!! The legacy we leave with our children, the blessings that come from doing it God’s way, the deepest love that can develop as we stay committed to our spouse and “chicks” far outweighs any tough poop we have to break through to make our homes work as God intended.
God created these strange birds with their strange behaviors and they are obedient to his plan. It is our individual responsibility to do the tasks that God has given us in marriage and to be obedient to His plan without excuse. What is His plan for marriage?
This blog doesn’t even begin to touch on solving all the problems for all the marriage poop that exists, but this is a good start and it all starts with loving God first…
Ephesians 5:21-33
21 Out of respect for Christ, be courteously reverent to one another.22 Wives, understand and support your husbands in ways that show your support for Christ.23 The husband provides leadership to his wife the way Christ does to his church, not by domineering but by cherishing.24 So just as the church submits to Christ as he exercises such leadership, wives should likewise submit to their husbands.25 Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church—a love marked by giving, not getting.26 Christ’s love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her,27 dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness.28 And that is how husbands ought to love their wives. They’re really doing themselves a favor—since they’re already “one” in marriage.29 No one abuses his own body, does he? No, he feeds and pampers it. That’s how Christ treats us, the church,30 since we are part of his body.31 And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cherishes his wife. No longer two, they become “one flesh.”32 This is a huge mystery, and I don’t pretend to understand it all. What is clearest to me is the way Christ treats the church.33 And this provides a good picture of how each husband is to treat his wife, loving himself in loving her, and how each wife is to honor her husband.”
Snapshot: Please take a moment to pray for your marriage, your part in the marriage. Pray that you will love and honor Christ by loving and honoring your spouse through kindness, unselfishness, forgiveness, sacrifice… Please pray for the marriages of others and especially for the marriages that are in trouble and the children who are impacted by them.
Hi. I am Jay. I am one of the main characters in the soon-to-be released book, God’s Great Story with Jay and Happy: Genesis 1 – Creation, written by Angela Millard, the author of WeGotOurJs. My character was inspired by Jeremiah, her son. As you can tell, we almost look like twins.
