A new ordinance has been signed into law in New Braunfels, TX. Please be aware that it is soon to be an illegal “offense” to feed the wildlife on public and private land within the city limits.
That means that a sentence that has been both true (and legal) for my children and for me will not be true for my grandchildren–
When I was little I fed the deer at Landa Park.
I have a very distinct memory of my son holding out a graham cracker to one of the deer at the park.
There was a period of time when we went to the park–a park, every day to feed someone–duck, chicken, deer, squirrel, turtle, fish, goose…each animal encounter was a priceless chance to sustain my children’s empathy. They practiced compassion, mercy, self-sacrifice, even science, and the scientific method as they spent time observing and feeding animals.
When we went to feed the animals we also tended to feed the children. We bought food from dozens of local restaurants and groceries. We ate our picnic, hiked, fed the animals. This ordinance prohibiting the feeding of animals in New Braunfels will mean we will buy less food from all these places. We will spend less time and money in New Braunfels.
We will not feed the children at the parks of New Braunfels, if we cannot feed the animals as well. It will be too painful remembering what used to be, for one, but then there is the pesky inviolate injunction of the law. What if we were to drop a cracker or a pizza crust? According to the city ordnance we would be breaking the law.
So, somehow, our city government and elected officials have decided. We should not feed the animals they say. And that leaves me deeply grieved, because I know, my children know, that
What they are really telling us is:
Don’t feed the children!
Because as Jesus has said more eloquently than I could–food is more than food, it is everything that feeds our souls.
And this kind of rich food for the soul of kindness and community and blessing is now thoroughly illegal
In New Braunfels, Texas.
Luke 12:23 NIV
[23] For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes.
