During a three-day winter storm, I hibernated in a warm home, pondering pandas and sparrows. If you have seen a panda, you are indeed privileged. By one count, there are only some 2000 in the world. But here’s a thought: if you have spotted a ubiquitous sparrow, you are privileged too. Track with me on this idea.
My panda curiosity began after seeing Kung Fu Panda 3. If you like animation and humor, this movie is a winner.
It is filled with lovable pandas rolling about, gobbling dumplings, and supporting each other’s uniqueness. The movie offers two themes: “each of us has special gifts,” and “we must combine our ‘chi’ to conquer evil”—kind of like “May the Force be with you.”
I don’t know why it surprised me to discover that real pandas aren’t anything like movie pandas. Here are some facts.
Pandas are not sociable, but territorial. They need to protect their limited food supply.
Most of the time they are only friendly to each other during mating season and when the female, as a single parent, raises her baby. Half the time a female has twins, but often chooses only the strongest one and rejects the other.
Pandas don’t hibernate because their low-fat diet won’t sustain lengthy sleeping. They each daily eat between 20 to 40 pounds of bamboo in over 15 varieties. They munch up to 14 hours a day and poop up to 40 times a day. In captivity, they are given a diet of bamboo, supplemented with sugar cane, rice gruel, a special high-fiber biscuit, carrots, apples, and sweet potatoes. Fruity popsicles are tasty too.
Pandas’ natural habitat is a small slice of China’s central mountains. As people encroach on the land there is less panda food and, therefore, this bear’s population cannot grow in the wild unless it has more protected lands.
Through China’s cooperation with other countries, there are small populations of pandas in zoos worldwide. Currently, you can find a few pandas at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.; Zoo Atlanta in Georgia; the San Diego Zoo in California; and the Memphis Zoo in Tennessee.
One other curious panda fact is that Chinese ancient art is panda-less. Other kinds of bears are carved into jade, and there are lots of paintings of bamboo and mountains where the pandas live, but no pandas.
After doing this research, I really wanted to see a live panda. I wondered how many zoo visitors realize the specialness of what they behold when viewing the black and white bears.
Also, all this panda reading led me to ask which creatures are seen by more people worldwide than any others? I do not know the official answer, but surely the lowly sparrow is in the running.
Jesus spoke of the sparrow:
“Two sparrows sell for a farthing, don’t they? Yet not a single sparrow falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. The very hairs of your head are all numbered. Never be afraid, then—you are far more valuable than sparrows” (Matthew 10:29-31, J. B. Phillips New Testament).
Here is my conclusion on “Pandas, Sparrows, and Us.”
A panda is special because it is on the verge of extinction and because it is just so darn cute.
A sparrow is special because Jesus said not one falls to the ground without the Father knowing.
And, we are special, because we are each more valuable than sparrows.
Pandas are rare and attractive; sparrows are many and humble-looking. And us? Although we together total seven billion people, we are individually highly treasured by the One who declares he cares and is mindful of the smallest creatures. It’s mind-blowing, but then we are not the Creator of pandas, sparrows and humans.
