Life Lessons from ... African Vervet Monkeys

Last blog post I talked about how despite the trials of of living in the African bush…there are joys…but today I want to highlight one of the trials, but how even the trials are tools in God's hands for teaching me!!

One of the trials is…monkeys!

When people come to visit us and see the monkeys, they get all excited about seeing monkeys in the wild.

But we don't get so excited when a troop of monkeys visit.

You see, their visits are like a noisy tornado coming through. They thunder across the roof and swing through the trees and jump all over the porch furniture, pull off the cushions, and continue on their demolishing exercises across the pot plants and garden.

Yes it is that bad. We get used to the thundering across the roof, but we have never got used to the destruction they bring. We were glad to learn that they hate water so if we are home, the quickest way to get rid of them is to squirt water at them or quickly turn on a hose.

This brings me to the first lesson from monkeys about the way 'not' to live life! …but I will express it in the positive…

DO teach your kids!

Verses like Deuteronomy  11:9 remind us to be sure to teach our children diligently the things of the Lord.

You see in monkey-land, parents don't seem to teach their kids anything.  They raise them to weaning stage and then all the 'kids' born in that season in that area are pushed out to live life on their own.  So when the babies are born the mothers are kind of together raising their babies, but then its like the nursery gets abandoned and the kids form a new 'gang' of 'teenage' monkeys to find their own way in life.

So each generation 'teen-gang' comes through with no parents anywhere to be seen, and they test all kinds of leaves and plants, fruits and flowers, breaking them off or pulling up bulbs, biting into them and usually deciding they don't like their choice and subsequently throw it on the ground.  Eventually they decide after various attempts over time, what they do and don't like. But then that group have their babies and teach the 'kids' nothing of what they learnt. The kids just are 'free' to work it out themselves when the time comes…and thus wreck a whole heap of further havoc before they work out what they do and don't like. 

Here's an example:

These plants look lovely in the little red wagon on our porch, but take a closer look and you find…..

The chives have been 'hacked'

and just left lying around on the ground after these monkeys all have a taste and decide they don't like it afterall!

Not teaching our kids, or thinking that letting them be 'free' to discover what works or not in life, all on their own, is not only unloving (as it puts them through unecessary  pain and heartache which also cheats them of time that could have been used for more constructive development), it is socially and environmentally damaging.  It affects more and hinders more and damages more than just themselves.

God sees everything, we can't hide from him

So often when we go out to 'squirt' the monkeys, even before we have done anything, they will tuck their heads behind a tree or wall or edge of the roof, (while the rest of their body is sticking out), thinking we can't see them. (I wish I had a photo of it, but I'm usually too busy trying to chase them away!) Like it is so often with children, when they can't see you, they think you can't see them!

But when we live hoping to just hide our wicked ways for now, until we think no-one is watching, we show ourselves to be the fools in the long run.  Either our sin will find us out, or we will discover in this day and age that someone was recording or filming on a smart phone, or even if none of this occurs, one day God will reveal all that has been done in private.

And those who think that ignoring God and blocking him out of their vision, somehow ceases to make him exist, are just showing the reality of the Scripture that says 'The fool has said in his heart "There is no God"' (Psalm 14:1) .

There is a Latin Phrase 'Coram Deo', which simply means 'before the face of God' that is worth remembering - we should live every moment in a way that acknowledges God, and that he sees us and everything we do and even think. We are to live so honouring him that we have no fear to be fully exposed and open before him, not hiding like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. While fear of his displeasure/disapproval should never be far from our minds, his presence should be a comfort to us and a reminder of his love. 

Let's not be like monkeys!