WATCHWORD:
These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world. John 16:33
O give us help against the adversary, for deliverance by man is in vain. Psalm 60:11
Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. James 1:12
Meditation:
I’m No Giraffe!
I’ve been thinking about God’s plan for each of our lives and how that plan doesn’t always run smoothly and the way we want it to. Sometimes the stumbling blocks get in our way and we have to adjust, change, alter our plan. We pray our way to the hospital in the ambulance, but we do pray our way back home in the car after we are healed? Are we consistent in our prayer-life, in good times and not so good?
Pastor Gary Richmond related an experience he had when visiting a zoo. He was standing next to Jack, the zookeeper, at a time when a giraffe was giving birth, and witnessed an amazing interaction between mother and her newborn. There was the mother giraffe, standing while giving birth. The calf’s hooves and head were already visible. “When is she going to lie down?” Gary asked Jack. “She won’t,” he answered. “But that’s a ten foot drop to the ground! Isn’t anyone going to catch the calf?” “Try catching it if you want,” Jack responded, “but its mother has enough strength in her hind legs to kick your head off.”
Soon the calf hurled forth, and landed hard on his back. The infant giraffe laid where it fell, almost motionless. No more than a minute passed and then something totally shocking happened. The mother kicks her baby. She booted her own little one hard enough to send it sprawling head over hooves. “Why’d she do that?” Gary asked. “She wants it to get up,” answered the zoo keeper. Somehow, the newborn giraffe knew what his mother wanted and haltingly struggled to rise. But after a few feeble tries, it gave up, sinking back to the ground.
Boom! A second hearty kick from the mother rolls the young one over several more times. The calf again tries to prop itself up again on its God-given stilts, and finally manages an upright stance. But then suddenly, something happened that took Gary’s breath away. Almost as soon as the calf gained stability, the mother kicked it off its feet! The zoo keeper explained, “She wants it to remember how it got up.”
I wonder if there is a message here, you know, one about adversity in our lives and the lesson that our Lord has for us as we overcome? That sounds about right. I don’t like the idea of repeated adversities in our lives, but that sometimes happens. Maybe it is discouragement that follows being knocked flat. Or, maybe, it’s our continued worry that clouds not only our present day, but the days to come. We do worry despite being told, “Do not worry.”
So, the mama giraffe instills a message in her calf with a kick: Remember how you got up and stood on your own. That is the message. Don’t forget.
So, the Lord says to you or me, remember how you got through this rough patch, how you got beyond the cancer, the heart problem, whatever. You prayed and prayed that I would help, and I did, and here you are. Do you remember that? “I’m good,” the Lord says, “on the tough stuff, but I’m also good on the easy stuff. Keep me close, closer than that mama giraffe to her calf.? Remember, God’s reminders can be difficult! Amen.
Closing Prayer:
Steer the ship of my life, good Lord, to your quiet harbor, where I can be safe from the storms of sin and conflict. Show me the course I should take. Renew in me the gift of discernment, so that I can always see the right direction in which I should go. And give me the strength and the courage to choose the right course, even when the sea is rough and the waves are high, knowing that through enduring hardship and danger in your name we shall find comfort and peace. Amen.
