Turkey Bones

Deinonychus is my favorite dinosaur. He was not that big, compared with the giants. But he was probably fierce, considering his huge sickle-shaped claw that stuck out of his hind foot like an built-in sword. His name, "Terrible Claw," reflects that one scary part of this creature.

The paleontologist John Ostrom puzzles over the bones of this creature, trying to figure out what kind of animal he was. Traditional science classified the dinosaurs as giant lizards, but this creature, with the long sharp claw, was clearly built for speed, with his body used for leaping on his prey, then stabbing and slashing the poor victim with that giant claw. A cold-blooded reptile doesn't have that ability. So what was this animal? A plodding cold-blooded creature that happened to have machinery that it would be unable to use-or a sleek, agile, fast, warm-blooded predator?

Then one Thanksgiving Day, when the turkey meat has been carved out and the carcass is sitting on the table, Ostrom has a sudden insight.

That carcass looks familiar.

It looks, in fact, just like the bones of the dinosaur he has been poring over. In fact, deinonychus had the anatomy of a bird. A bird like the turkey. Not the anatomy of a lizard.

Every time I look at my Thanksgiving turkey, I think of deinonychus. And I wonder whether I might, like John Ostrom, be so open to new possibilities that I could see a dinosaur in my Thanksgiving turkey carcass. Or a creative inspiration in my daily walk on the river. Or even the face of God in the shoeless panhandler downtown. God gives us the gift of imagination, so that we can envision new possibilities-whether it be a new dinosaur, a new future, a new church-or a new Earth and a new Heaven. Let our eyes be opened, and have a happy Thanksgiving!