SAUCIER — Degrees of ark

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” Shakespeare’s sonnet asks.

“It all depends,” I insist.

Does he mean a summer day of kids’ play, beach reading and infinite sunsets?

Or is it those summer days when I am a mosquito buffet, the moles have built a subway system in the yard, and the deer are less than endearing when they mow down my wife’s hostas, moss roses and phlox.

It could have been different. In Genesis 6, when God was giving Noah the passenger list for the ark, exceptions could have been made.

“Of all other living creatures, you shall bring two into the ark, one male and one female.”

That could have meant just the cute ones, the friendly ones, and the edible ones. But in the very next chapter, there is a different math.

“Of every clean animal, take with you seven pairs, a male and its mate; and of the unclean animals, one pair, a male and its mate.”

This verse certainly makes the ark much more crowded than the “two of each” in Genesis 6, but I see it more instructional than contradictory.

It makes a point to acknowledge and include the undesirable, even the dangerous.

The fauna of creation, from Angus beef to skin-clinging chiggers, all have a role in this intricate web of life of which we are an inseparable part.

The mosquito may be a miserable, disease-carrying pest, but it is also a pollinator, essential to the reproduction of certain plants, as well as a delectable and nutritious part of a bird’s diet.

The author of Genesis 7 realizes that what we may see as less than good is essential to the overall good and must be protected and preserved.

In Scripture, the number 7 signifies wholeness or perfection. A ratio of seven pairs of clean animals to one pair of unclean says that the good is abundant, but it needs the less-than-good to be complete.

I’ll still grumble about the pests that ravage my legs, lawn and garden, but I will admit their right to exist in a design marvelously beyond my understanding.

But maybe the message is deeper than that. Maybe it’s more than mosquitoes and moles. Maybe it is about human pain and failure, as well — not just as inevitable, but necessary.

As Walter Brueggemann wrote: “The riddle and insight of biblical faith is the awareness that only anguish leads to life, only grieving leads to joy ... .”