I'm wasting time this morning touching on a three day old tragedy that's already been written on and commented on thousands of times. Sometimes the keyboard and my conscience won't leave me alone until I pick up my iPad and say what's already been said if only to cast my ballot. I would have written yesterday, but I decided that my thoughts on the tragedy of the death of a gorilla could wait until after Memorial Day. 

You've heard about it I'm sure. 

At a zoo in Cincinnati, a beloved gorilla belonging to an endangered species was shot.

If you've already read about this you can skip on down to the picture where I plead for the madness to stop. 

Here's the story:

 A three year old boy at the zoo with his mom got under a guardrail and through an enclosure landing him in space shared by several gorillas. His mom claims she snapped a picture or two of the gorilla and her son was gone. 

Of course there's video of the ordeal. I watched the whole video of what ensued; not the forty-five second snippet posted by NBC which makes it look like a gorilla named Harambe is holding hands with the little boy about to play patty-cake with him.  The whole video shows the gorilla grabbing the boy's foot and dragging him through knee-high water. You can see in the video that there's at least one bolder in the water which, if hit, could seriously injure and possibly kill the boy. 

With the gorilla's strength and the speed at which he's dragging the boy, the boy looks like a rag doll underwater. Onlookers from above the exhibit are yelling and the boy is screaming off and on. Naturally the gorilla becomes anxious, maybe agitated, and pulls the boy away from where people can see. 

This all goes on for about ten minutes until zoo personnel arrive and shoot the gorilla. 

It's tragic. It is. Harambe was a beautiful animal and there aren't many like him left (around 30). I can't possibly know what his intentions were, or even if gorillas have intentions. I just know that these trained people, whose livelihood is to care for animals, decided that the best decision was to ensure that a little boy would come out of that gorilla's habitat alive. World-known zookeeper Jack Hannah, amongst other trained professionals familiar with male gorilla behavior and strength,  agrees with their decision. 

This mother had several children with her at the zoo that day. Witnesses say that her children were right beside her and that she was watching them. It's reported that her three year old had his hand in her back pocket. While she was taking pictures of the gorilla he slipped away. She immediately began calling for him. While calling his name a man saw that the boy had gone through the railing and had crawled through the enclosure. 

Thousands have disagreed with the zoo's decision to kill the gorilla, but more are those who have wished the mother dead using obscene, hate-filled language. 

 Over three hundred thousand people have called for a CPS and police investigation on this woman. They want her fined, jailed and her children taken away.  There have even been awful comments about the three year old. 

I had to take a Facebook break yesterday from reading vile things people had to say. Today I'm jumping in and giving my two cents even though I know many won't agree. Sometimes I can't help myself. There a few things that shouldn't be ignored. 

God values human life over animal life. So should we. 

God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." Genesis 1:26

We're made in His image. As someone reminded me on Facebook today, God spoke and animals and the rest of creation were. He breathed His breath into us. 

 Even those we consider "the least of these" are more valuable to God than any beautiful bird or the kindest beast. Those who God highly values includes negligent mothers, overreacting meter readers who hit dogs, and college cheerleaders and rich vets who shoot lions. 

I'm not condoning animal cruelty. I'm thankful for and remain in awe of God's creatures.  I'm against the thought of any animal life being placed above the life of any human. God, used a lot of words, (and, oh yeah, Jesus' death on a cross) to say that people matter even when they mess up (and they do mess up). He also told us that if we love Him, that others ought to matter to us too (even the most dastardly folks).  

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. John 13:35

I get that you can love someone but still rightfully cast blame. It's true. You can. 

And I'm sure this little guy's mom wasn't watching him for a second. His hand left her back pocket and she didn't immediately turn around and check on him. There's a report that he'd already mentioned going in the water where the gorilla was. She told him no and proceeded to take a picture instead of watching him like a hawk. There was some negligence. No doubt. 

I just have to stand in line with parents who've messed up. Our watchful eyes close or look elsewhere for long enough for something awful to happen. It's happened to most, if not all, of us. Lucky for most of us, something awful has yet to happen. 

One time when my oldest was around 18 months old I opened the windows while cleaning house. We lived in a pier and beam house and had a concrete front porch below. The windows which reached just a few inches above the floor were screened. Just as I took my eyes off my son, he walked over to the window and pounded on the screen. The screen popped off and my son fell through the open window head first onto the concrete porch. Unbelievably he wasn't hurt. I don't know how. 

I placed enough blame on myself as I'm sure this mother in Cincinnati has. Had my son been hurt I can't imagine how much more I would have loathed myself just as I would have been torn up had my neglect caused harm to someone else (or some thing). 

We didn't know that gorilla and we don't know this woman. We don't know how long she looked away. We weren't there. We didn't see. We don't know whether or not something like this could happen to us though we say it could never happen. We're all neglectful. We all parent in error. 

You've heard hindsight's 20/20. Well we think we can beat that. From afar we think our vision is better than perfect. We've got 20/10. 

Even those of us with great vision and awesome parenting skills blink and sometimes things happen. 

A dead gorilla can have our affection. We can hold up signs and make shrines in his honor if we must.  We can mourn his loss. But we'd do best to show a little grace. This woman and every other inhabitant in this globe-sized  fishbowl we've created could use it. 

From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 

John 1:16