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| By Ianpassion Photo was taken at Manang, Satun, Thailand 2016 |
Each elephant is about 2,000-5,000 kilograms and can eat 130-170 kilograms of grass, banana, sugarcane, and leaves every day. Their trunks contain 100 thousand different muscles, which they use for smelling, breathing, trumpeting, drinking, and grabbing.
One more interesting about these animals, they do not sleep much. They only sleep about two hours at night then they eat again until sunrise, as told by the Elephant master.
Elephant riding is a wonderful experience, yet it can be a dangerous moment if we ride without hurdling and if this elephant works regularly dragging and lifting logs in the jungle instead of entertaining tourists, which he is not used to people then riding will be at our risk.
As I was born and raised in the Philippines, so I only knew elephants from our science books and through a story about the blind men who never came across an elephant. So our first experience on the back of this gigantic animal was indeed an unforgettable moment.
Figuring ways how to be on his back was our first struggle. Ten to twelve feet his height was impossible to climb without a stand. Not until he would kneel down and help us climb through his knee and then onto his back.
Another fear was what if he would roll me with his big trunk and squeeze me to death. He uses his trunk to break branches and lift logs. So it would be easier for him to do the same with me if he wanted to. And I was informed ahead that He was not used to strangers and was his first time to see and smell strangers like me and my wife, so to be on his back was indeed at our risk.
Our third fear was the time when we would be on his back. What if he got irritated then would shake us off. With nothing to brace ourselves, only through his thick skin and his sharp hairs, falling around twelve feet above the ground could surely disjoin our spines. But if we were lucky enough then we would end up hanging on a palm tree. hahahahahahaha. I thought that was scarier.
As I was born and raised in the Philippines, so I only knew elephants from our science books and through a story about the blind men who never came across an elephant. So our first experience on the back of this gigantic animal was indeed an unforgettable moment.
Another fear was what if he would roll me with his big trunk and squeeze me to death. He uses his trunk to break branches and lift logs. So it would be easier for him to do the same with me if he wanted to. And I was informed ahead that He was not used to strangers and was his first time to see and smell strangers like me and my wife, so to be on his back was indeed at our risk.
Our third fear was the time when we would be on his back. What if he got irritated then would shake us off. With nothing to brace ourselves, only through his thick skin and his sharp hairs, falling around twelve feet above the ground could surely disjoin our spines. But if we were lucky enough then we would end up hanging on a palm tree. hahahahahahaha. I thought that was scarier.
With all these thrilling emotions I felt, however, I was amazed at how this big animal submitted to the authority of his master who was seven times smaller than him. Consequently, as long as the master was next to him, I knew we had nothing to be afraid of. We were safe.
What was interesting was, that if the master asked the elephant to kneel down then he knelt. If he asked him to walk then he walked. If he asked him to stop when he stopped. Whatever his master asked him to do, he obeyed. It was because this elephant grew up knowing his master who is like His dad, who has been with him, feeding and loving him.
With all that we experienced, it made me ponder again our relationship with our heavenly Father. How are we related to Him?
We will never feel complete of ourselves if we keep behaving like inferior servants and if we failed to figure out how our Creator is related to us and how we are related to Him. There is only one reason that He breathed His life into us because we are His children and He is our Father. We are His family.
Our Father created a family. He never desired to create mankind and place them in a system to be manipulated. If I could turn back time, in the mind of the Father, for sure He wanted children, not fearful servants because only children could perfectly replicate His Love from heaven to earth.
Read the prayer of the Son:
The Father wanted a family, not an institution, organization, or denomination.
Read the prayer of the Son:
"I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.
May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me,
that they may be one as we are one."
(John 17:20-22)
The oneness that the son was talking about in this passage can only be attained in the Kingdom-family context. The main reason that the Triune Deity created mankind was to replicate their family culture from heaven to earth which they have been enjoying for past eternity. As a result, mankind becomes the imago Dei of Them and those who believed have been given a new identity- a child of the Agape Father (see John 1:12, Galatians 3:26).
The prayer of the Son expressed His deepest desire to unite all believers in one family (see John chapter 17), composed of His sons and daughters reflecting the loving relationship of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
The prayer of the Son expressed His deepest desire to unite all believers in one family (see John chapter 17), composed of His sons and daughters reflecting the loving relationship of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
The Son's prayer is to let all His children have that gift of the family-like what they have, to be united like them, and to love like the way they loved. And like this elephant I talk about on this blog, we, sons and daughters, must obey our Creator not because He is related to us as our master, but because He is related to us as our dearest Loving Father.
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| This picture was taken in 2016 @ Manang, Satun, South of Thailand. |
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