Rahab the Harlot

How is do I see God in Falconry. THIS…. !!!

Rahab the Harlot

Reposted from Facebook Sept 7, 2020:

In September of 2020 I began my 5th season as a falconer by trapping a nice sized female juvenile red-tailed hawk I named, Rahab the Harlot. I have always loved the story in the Bible of Rahab. It’s a nitty gritty story that doesn’t sugar coat the truth. In the book of Joshua, Rahab’s story is told with all the dirt. She was a Harlot. She wasn’t clean or respectable. Everyone knew exactly what she was.

She was looked down on by society and judged. Maybe rightfully so. Maybe not. But GOD saw something deeper than the dirt.

I have always named my birds after a person in the bible. As I started my 5th season, and contemplated this birds name, its was Rahab I thought about.

Why a Harlot? Why not something more respectable? Because we are all in the same condition as Rahab. All of us are filthy, unclean, unworthy, trying to hide the shame of what we really are.

There are so many facets of this sport that remind me of my spiritual condition.

When you trap a new hawk they can be quiet filthy. Internal parasites, external mites and flies in the feathers, and feet that are covered in grit and grime. So the falconer will administer medicine for the parasites, spray the feathers for mites, lice and flies, and clean up those nasty feet.

I love this bird. Even with her still acting wild and covered in filth, she is beautiful. Majestic in my eyes. I see the future version of her. I have plans for this girl. I want the very best for her. I see her cleaned up, doing what God created her to do.

The biblical Rahab the Harlot was much the same. A woman of ill repute. Running a brothel on the edge of Jericho. A woman covered in filth. Yet in God's eyes she was beautiful. He loved her while she was still wild and unkept. He saw a future version of her. He had plans for this girl. He wanted the very best for her. He saw her cleaned up and doing what HE created her to do.

God is like that. He loves us. No matter what our condition. He loves the broken. He loves the unlovely. He loves those that don't love him back.

God loved Rahab the Harlot. In fact, 1400 years after her time, when Matthew writes the genealogy of Christ the King, we learn that Rahab the Harlot was in the direct lineage of Jesus the King. She was FAMILY.

Jesus welcomes the sinner into his family. Dirt and all.

God loves you too. And there is absolutely NOTHING you can do to change that.

Let Jesus wash those dirty feet.

John 13: 1-4

1 It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2 The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power,and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.