Elephant.

I spent my entire morning watching BBC's "The Life of Mammal's"...it's a pretty sweet deal.  Not only am I resting my little legs, I'm learning strange things about all sorts of mammals on Netflix.  I mean, there are mammals I haven't even heard of. (Do you know what a Pika is?  Or that they layer different poisonous plants in their little caves in a time-sensitive order so that they are able to eat during the winter?  Or that the Tik-tik eats the lowest layer of Acacia leaves, the Impala eats the middle layer, the Gerenuk eats the layer above that (because of their smaller heads & extendable backbone), and giraffes eat the highest layer of the same plant?  I didn't.)

One animal in particular made me think of Jesus.  It was this momma elephant that was guiding her baby calf in the dark.  Apparently, elephants need dietary supplements like the next person, and they go into dark caves at night to break off large hunks of salt.  (See!  You didn't know that either, did you?)  They literally have to put one foot right in front of the other just to climb up into this huge cave.  A giant elephant led the way, and then the rest of the herd followed.

So.  This momma is not only trying to climb up a teeny tiny little path to get into a rocky, jaggedy cave, but she's doing it with her kid.  (Sounds like a lot of moms I know, metaphorically speaking...kudos to all you moms out there.)  Do you wanna know how she got her baby into the cave, and kept it from breaking it's little baby legs on the rocks?  With her trunk.  It was so crazy!

Now, you may be asking, "How the heck does that make you think of Jesus, Catie?"  Well.  The first thing I thought of when I saw that elephant gently but sternly guiding her baby was how Jesus uses his staff.  He does the exact same thing with us!  I almost started to cry because the parallel was so beautiful.

I know I've talked about Psalm 23 before, but here's v. 3-5:

"...he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
   for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk
   through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
   for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
   they comfort me.

I am so thankful that, like an elephant, Jesus is so strong & yet so sensitive towards us.  "The rod & staff" are sometimes spoken of in a negative connotation, but I truly think that Jesus leads us exactly as that momma elephant did.  With great care, great concern, and great compassion.