While my wife and I walked through the pavement of the forest-covered terrain and recreational park of the 29-hectare Penang Botanical Gardens in Malaysia, we saw men and women in their 70s jogging along with a kid of 7 years old; a daughter and mother walking together; a senior citizen on a wheelchair; a family sat in a gazebo near the stream; and at least two couples posed for a postnuptial photo shoot.
But the most attractive scene to behold was a big family of free-living monkeys! Creatures we only see in the zoos, and still have to see in the Philippine jungle.
Our taxi driver later told us to beware of the monkeys as they tend to attack people holding food, though I could only see a behaved (yet watchful) monkey sitting on a bench while others frolicked on a bridge.
Then I began to reflect, do I really come from monkeys? It seems that dogs and cats are a lot more domesticated, otherwise, we would see people with pet monkeys in the malls instead of a chihuahua inside a baby cart. I wonder how monkeys would behave in the food court, markets, or grocery stores with all the bananas displayed? Perhaps it will be one of the most amusing scenes to see or at least to imagine.
But Psalms 139:14 says, “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.” One can also read about Christ’s genealogy in Luke 3:38: “The son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.” While a theory remains a theory, and truth remains a truth, man is still to be respected for his personal conviction and his freedom of choice.
But if I attack a man because I don’t like how he believes, or if I take away a man’s property (e.g. food, shoes, etc.) because I like it or I’m hungry, then what distinction do my actions have from monkeys’? If I bruise a man who wants to be a member of my society, do I act worse than a monkey?
When the Samaritans didn’t receive Christ, His disciples, James and John said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?” Jesus rebuked them and said, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them” (Luke 9:52-56).
Thankfully, the freedom that our national heroes have fought for is still here; so long as the government upholds the freedom of religion, as when Adam and Eve were given a choice to eat the fruit or not, then the freedom of conscience is still unconfined as the air, the light, and the rain.
After all, is it not a choice to be worse, to be like, or to be better than monkeys?
Ham Geg G. Manggasang
hamgegmanggasang@gmail.com