A Radical Reformer Speaks Out on Birds, Dogs, and Babies
by MLC Professor Emeritus Arnold Koelpin WLS ’58
Martin Luther, a nature lover? Absolutely. The radical nature of Martin Luther’s reform is intimately tied up with highlighting Jesus’ work of redemption. Creator and Redeemer are one in essence. In nature, the Triune God is at work. The Wittenberg reformer deeply appreciates God’s creation and Christian attitudes toward woodlands and fields. Nature is “God’s mask,” not God’s masquerade. Under the cover of nature, Luther sees God at work.
In the woods, Luther saluted the birds: “Good morning, theologians—you wake and sing, but I, an old fool, know less than you and worry over everything instead of simply trusting in the heavenly Father’s care.” The earthy outlook had an upbeat application. “We are the dawn of a new era, for we are beginning to recover the knowledge of the external world that we lost through the fall of Adam. We now observe creatures properly.”
Birds in flight help us observe God’s work beneath the surface. “Pious people look upon birds and flowers filled with wonder, and learn from both to say: ‘If God does such fine things for his creatures, will he not clothe and feed me?’”
Yet noting how birds fly away when we approach, he also was led to comment, “These birds lack faith. They do not know how glad I am to have them here nor that I would let no harm be done them. Thus do we act toward God, who loves us and who has given his Son for us.” Despite all, these same birds remain objects of God’s abundant care. “No one is able to calculate the wealth God spends feeding the birds.”
Even common acts such as reproduction caught the Reformer’s eye. He noted how our sinful break from the Creator has diminished the radical beauty of God’s gift of procreation. “The ungodly won’t see the glory of God; in fact, they can’t even recognize present gifts because God overwhelms us so much with them. See how well a little fish multiplies, for one produces probably a thousand.”
“Consider the birds,” he muses, “how chastely their reproduction takes place! . . . Look how the little chick is hidden in the egg! If we had never seen such an egg and one were brought from Shangri-La, we’d be startled and amazed. And all the philosophers couldn’t offer an explanation for these creatures. Only Moses gives an explanation: ‘God said, and it was so.’”
Nature teaches many lessons of life. The Luther household pet, their dog Töpel, liked to sit poised next to the dining table, patiently staring at every move, waiting for a scrap to fall. “If I were devoted to prayer as a dog is to food,” the good Doctor noted sincerely, “I could get anything from God.”
God answered. His marriage to Katherine was blessed with six children. “I have received, by the blessing of God, a little son, and, by God’s wonderful grace, I have become a father.” Papa admired the baby’s simplicity and trustfulness and watched him grow with a father’s eye and an educational interest. “My little Hans sends greetings. He is in his teething month and is beginning to say ‘Daddy,’ and scolds everybody with pleasant insults.”
Even the unfortunate happenings of parenthood did not dampen Luther’s love. When the baby dirtied papa’s lap, he good-naturedly explained that the child’s performance did not differ from the way we treat our heavenly Father. God cares and provides for us and we repay him with the filth of sin and ingratitude.
Radical. From the Latin radix, meaning “root.” Like a radish, growing under the surface, it relates to the fundamental origin from which something grows.
God answered. His marriage to Katherine was blessed with six children. “I have received, by the blessing of God, a little son, and, by God’s wonderful grace, I have become a father.” Papa admired the baby’s simplicity and trustfulness and watched him grow with a father’s eye and an educational interest. “My little Hans sends greetings. He is in his teething month and is beginning to say ‘Daddy,’ and scolds everybody with pleasant insults.”
Even the unfortunate happenings of parenthood did not dampen Luther’s love. When the baby dirtied papa’s lap, he good-naturedly explained that the child’s performance did not differ from the way we treat our heavenly Father. God cares and provides for us and we repay him with the filth of sin and ingratitude.
A Salute to the Birds
“Good morning, theologians—you wake and sing, but I, an old fool, know less than you and worry over everything instead of simply trusting in the heavenly Father’s care.”
-Martin Luther
Yet little ones need guidance and discipline because of their sinful nature. Respect for parents and love for parents go hand in hand. Luther came down hard on any form of child-beating that gave vent to parents’ anger and merely satisfied their feelings. Commenting on St. Paul’s words: “Fathers, provoke not your children to anger” (Colossians 3:21), he said,
“This is spoken against those who use passionate violence in bringing up their children. Such discipline begets in the child’s mind, which is yet tender, a state of fear and reticence, and develops a feeling of hate towards the parents, so that it often runs away from home. . . . Yet St. Paul does not mean that we should not punish children, but that we should punish them from love, seeking not to cool our anger, but to make them better.”
Occasionally when his son Hans disturbed Luther’s concentration by loud antics, Luther reprimanded him and the child stopped out of respect for his father. The memory came back as the professor was working on the second Psalm: “Serve the Lord with fear and trembling” (Psalm 2:11). “They go together—joy and fear,” he commented introspectively. “My little son Hans can do it before me, but I cannot do it before God. If I sit and write, and Hans sings a song over there and plays too noisily, I speak to him about it and he sings more quietly with care and respect. So God will always have us joyful, but with fear and honor to him.”
Childcare lessons therefore must take into account the child’s nature: “One who disciplines with anger makes evil worse. . . . Experience teaches that love will effect more than slavish fear or force. . . . Parents commonly are guilty of ruining their children. They usually make a mistake in two directions, either by excessive coddling and indulgence, or through excessive severity and animosity.”
Despite their daily wrongdoings and sinful nature, children remain the greatest blessings of God. To a fellow professor who was rejoicing in God’s blessings of fruit by hanging a cherry branch over his table, Luther suggested, “Why don’t you think of your children? They are in front of you all the time, and you will learn from them more than from a cherry bough.”
