Early Morning ELEPHANTS

I know I said that the baobab trees were the most impressive thing I saw in Africa… but the elephants would have to be a close second. Absolutely magnificent animals, the sight of them simply took our breath away. Standing in a group or crossing the grassland in a straggling line, they were an incredible sight. Seeing them up close, their massive heads framed with ears shaped like the continent in which they lived, caused me to exclaim, even on that very first day, “How is this even my life right now?!” and to feel that my safari experience was already complete.

 But there was more. Our guide noted the direction in which they were headed, and then drove our Land Rover to a point that would intersect their line of travel. There we waited, watching in breathless wonder as they slowly approached, and, heedless of our vehicle, slowly lumbered past as we watched in stunned silence. On they continued past us, neither deterred nor bothered by our presence, scarcely even seeming to notice us at all, to wherever they were headed, leaving us in awed disbelief at the experience.

 Rising early to catch the animals when they are most active, we had just left our campsite one morning, freshly breakfasted and caffeinated, ready to seize the day, when the road we were on rounded a huge rock outcropping and revealed a few elephants splashing and refreshing themselves in a poof of water on the other side. Suddenly stopped, we marveled at such a magnificent sight with which to start the day. Watching the elephants drink and play, I couldn’t help but think that if we drank as deeply of the Living Water available to us in the early hours,  maybe our days would play out in a similarly better way.

 

“O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirst for You, my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.”

(Psalm 63:1 NIV)