Standing in the stream

This week I had the opportunity to visit yet another wildlife attraction in Nairobi. Kenya is full of them.  I love visiting the parks to see, and in a some cases, touch the animals. This week I went to the Giraffe Center, a park that was created to protect the endangered Rothschild Giraffe, a subspecies of giraffe that is found only in the grasslands of East Africa. The center is within walking distance, albeit a fairly long walk, from the Consolata Language Center where I’m currently studying. As I mentioned previously, I’m trying to see as many things as possible in and around Consolata while I’m here at the school. It’s not that I could never come back to this part of Nairobi once I leave the school, but it’s much easier for me to visit attractions that are in proximity of the school while I’m boarding here. There is no easy way to get to the Giraffe Center from Consolata using any form of public transportation as the center is a little off the beaten trail. It took me about 1 1/4 hours for me to walk to Giraffe Center (and as what goes up, must come down, it took me about 1 1/4 hours to walk back home later). However, it was well worth it. The only real transportation option is a pikipiki, which means motorcycle, that you ride on the back of. Pikipiki abound all over Naorobi. You can find them on many major roadways at intersections. At the Galleria mall, which is right down the street from the school, there are always at least 3 -4 pikipiki there waiting for passengers at any time. Although I have been daring enough to touch a lion and a crocodile here in Kenya, I have not yet had the courage to ride on the back of a pikipiki. I’m not sure if I ever will, especially given the fact that many passengers don’t even wear a helmet as not all drivers provide one. Add to that the condition of some of the roads and the way the pikipiki weave around cars, I’m not sure I’m that brave (or more likely careless). In any case, I really needed the exercise anyway as walking is really the only exercise I get here and I don’t do enough of it. It was not only a beautiful day to walk, as most days are in Nairobi, but I got to explore different places on my way to the center, which is I mentioned is off the main road and so I have not walked that way before.

At the Giraffe center, you get to hand feed the giraffes. When you enter the center, you are given a bag of “giraffe food”, consisting of dried pellets made from leaves, which I learned are from the branches of acacia trees, that the giraffes really like.  The giraffes are fed most of the day by tourists and also free to roam around their large enclosed area to find and eat other food. You feed the giraffes by holding the pellet between your index finger and thumb and let the giraffe use their long tongues to take the food from between your fingers. Although, there are signs that say to only use your hands to feed the giraffes, a number of people put the food between their lips and have the giraffes take the food that way. That wasn’t something I felt compelled to do.

At the Giraffe Center, you can get right up close to the giraffes. There is an elevated viewing area where you can feed the giraffes “face to face” and even touch them. However, you need to be careful. While the giraffes don’t bite (unless possibly if really threatened), they do head butt. One guy barely escaped being clobbered. The giraffes have pretty big heads and I’m sure it would hurt. I also learned not to get to close to the giraffes when they are drinking. After drinking from the water container, one giraffe proceeded to splash water on everyone who was close by. Some people got soaked! Fortunately, I was up on the elevated platform when this happened and so out of range of the water. I nearly captured the event on video, but had just stopped recording when this happened.

At the center there is a lot of information posted about giraffes and the guides at the center periodically give about a ten minute talk and answer questions. One new fact that I learned is that giraffes can kick with enough force to take out a lion, that is seriously wound or even kill. That was another reason why I’m happy that most of the viewing at the center is from the elevated platform.

It’s interesting how the giraffes all have different personalities that you can actually discern in your encounters with them. I guess it shouldn’t come as a big surprise as most of us are aware in difference in personalities of our pets at home. However, in my mind, I mistakenly lumped all species of wildlife together into a single entity, like giraffes, when in fact each animal is unique and different. As I discussed in my last post, every creature has its own value and significance. I needed to be reminded of that fact.

I didn’t necessarily mean for these blog posts to be so serious and filled with theological reflections (and I’m certainly not claiming to be a theologian), but when I sit down to write my posts this is what comes out. So, I sit back and let our Lord take the lead, praying that I’m doing what he wants me to do. If I’m not accomplishing exactly what He wants, then I’m at least trying my best.

I have been watching a set of bible study videos online. The very first video sets the table to the series with the statement “we’re standing in the stream of salvation history.” Well, that got me thinking about salvation history and using the analogy of a stream or river to describe it. So here goes yet another reflection. This is what I came up with.

Think of creation, which is ‘in a state of journeying’ (as it did not spring forth complete from the hands of God as described in the Catechism), as a river flowing towards its mouth, where it meets its final destiny, which for creation is God, the source and final destiny of all things. However, with creation, the journeying toward the mouth of the river is still a work in progress. The ultimate perfection, to which God has destined it, is yet to be attained. 

God willed that we be active and willing participants in the stream of salvation history. Each of us, in some way guides the river, with our thoughts and actions, what we do and what we have fail to do, in other words, we guide salvation history by the way we love God and each other.

For we who exist in a particular time and place in this stream, it is very difficult, if not impossible to see the effects that our actions (or inactions) have on the course of the river (stream of salvation history). Most of the time it feels like we have no effect at all. However, we know that in God’s plan, everything matters and everything has meaning. Being inside the stream, we don’t have the perspective to see the path that is being tread – like standing in the middle of a river and not being able to see where it is headed. But if you stand on a mountain overlooking the river, the direction of the river is clear. As God stands outside time and space, he sees the big picture. He gently guides the course of the stream by nudging each one of us to follow Him, but always respecting our freedom to make our own choices. Remember that everything is grace.

God knew us and had a plan for each and every one of us from all eternity. As the prophet Jeremiah tells us “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you.” God placed each and every one of us into this steam of salvation history at a unique time and place for a particular purpose. A time and place where He willed that we make our contribution to the direction of the flow of the river. When you think of things this way, you can see how special and unique each of us is.

As rivers don’t flow in a straight line, so it is with the stream of salvation. As the saying goes, “God writes straight with crooked lines.”

As I thought through my river analogy a little more, I realized that rivers flow in a path of least resistance. At first I thought that this is where the river analogy breaks down. Given the state of our world, and the suffering and evil that exists in it, it seems hard to fathom that this is the path of least resistance – at least the path that leads to its ultimate perfection, which is its final destiny. However, I then thought of the problem of perspective again and the fact that we see things only from within the stream. However, if we look at things through the eyes of faith, truly believe what Jesus said “For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”, and the fact that doing the will of God is what leads to true happiness, we can perhaps see things differently and the river analogy may in fact still work!

God’s plans are always accomplished. The prophet Isaiah tells us “So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what pleases me, achieving the end for which I sent it.” As the quote by Eldridge Cleaver goes ‘You either have to be part of the solution, or you’re going to be part of the problem.’ I think we are basically being told that we can do this hard way or the easy way, you decide.

Trust and let God be in charge of our lives. Be joyful knowing that His plans for us are always perfect, even though this may be challenging for us to see given that we are seeing things from perspective of standing in the stream, that is, in the moment of today’s trials and suffering.

God is good.