Warning Words

It was a gorgeous grizzly. And I’m sure the Facebook photo I saw of it didn’t even do it due justice. The person posting the image said she had watched it from the safety of her car as it wandered around the restrooms near Dunraven Pass in Yellowstone National Park.

The same couldn’t apparently be said for other watchers, however. People were placing their children in front of the bear in order to get a great photo. “I couldn’t believe it,” the poster exclaimed. “We actually called for help because we were afraid someone was going to get hurt. Luckily the rangers showed up and the bear was more interested in what was under the rocks!” Good thing, I’d say!

Bears, both grizzlies and the black variety, are quick. And dangerous—especially when they have young. Yellowstone certainly warns people about the them, and other potential dangers in the park. The rule is visitors must stay 100 yards away from bears and wolves and 25 yards from all other wildlife (I will confess to unwittingly violating this rule one summer as I and my camera were mesmerized by a full-racked elk taking a meandering look-see through my picnic area; I meandered right along with this big fellow and I do realize he could have done me damage; I won’t do it again; I will heed the warnings in the future; at least I hope I will).

We think warnings are good, especially for other people. “The past speaks to us in a thousand voices, warning and comforting, animating and stirring to action,” said Felix Adler. Except when it doesn’t. Aldous Huxley countered: “that men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.”

We often don’t know what warnings to heed. Coffee is bad for us. Coffee is good for us. Avoid fat in the diet. No, shun carbs. Sometimes it seems there’s always a new warning out about something that turns out to contradict itself the very next day.

Good to know God’s warnings to us in His Word don’t change and are always for our good. "Be very careful then how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is." (Eph. 5:15-17). Oh, and steer clear of bears!