September 10: Alpaca Day!

 

September 10:  Alpaca Day

In 2014, the Alpaca Owners Association (AOA) founded this holiday to educate people about how lovable and soft Alpacas are and how they contribute to the global economy. Each year, the AOA hosts events all over the North American region with cooperation from farm members to educate people about the alpaca farm industry. There may be such a celebration in your area today!

If not, consider Colossians 1:16:  “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.”  All things were created by and for Him.Yup, that includes alpacas, and duck billed platypuses, and the Orion constellation, and seahorses, and the naked mole rat (check out the latter—uck!!)

The AOA notwithstanding, how does it all hang together and keep working?  What keeps the gravitational pulls and orbits and ecosystems humming along?  Despite mankind’s efforts to mess things up, our world continues with precision and supernatural order.  The answer is found in the next verse in Colossians 1: “And he (Jesus) is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”  Imagine:  If Jesus Christ were to loosen His grip on our world for even a moment, it would spin off into oblivion.  But He doesn't, and that is very good news.

We are all familiar with the expression “keep it together…”  As life unravels and the stresses of modern-day living threaten to overwhelm us, we are urged to do just that. But for those of us who are born again, we can live with the confidence that someone greater than us is pressing in on our world, holding it together, from the sub-atomic level to the millions of galaxies that populate the universe.  Jesus Christ knits together every part of our world, from naked mole rats to quarks, from the tides to, yes, even the alpaca.

Today, rest in that confidence.  Despite the brokenness and apparent chaos of our world (or your world) Jesus is holding it all together, you included.  You are cradled in the loving embrace of the One who made the universe and all it's crazy contents. He never rests, never misses anything, and the word “oops” is not in His vocabulary.  The next time you see an alpaca, remember that.