After over 2 decades living on the wonderful continent of Africa, as we recently headed off for a few days break to the Pilanesberg Game Reserve in South Africa, the only one of the ‘Big Five’ African animals I was yet to see in the wild, was the Leopard.
Elephant - tick ✔️Rhinoceros - tick ✔️Buffalo -tick ✔️Lion - tick ✔️Leopard - ❌
But so far the Leopard had been elusive.
(to clarify, there was one night drive I was on many years back where the Ranger guide said that two little reflections we could see way in the distance, off his super-strong spot light, were right where he knew a Leopard had been spotted and that little pair of reflective specks would probably be him. But do I count that? Maybe … Maybe not. I certainly have not seen one fully in daylight clarity or even closer up under a night spotlight to be able to be sure to say without a doubt that I have seen a Leopard.)
Various friends have made even a short visit to Africa just for a couple weeks and managed to see all the Big Five, including Leopard…but 20 years and many, many Game viewing excursions in several major Game Parks and across three countries…still I haven’t seen one.
So...
Well, God certainly had something for me to experience this time…but it wasn’t quite how I thought it would be…
It was related to not only to seeing a Leopard, but also seeing afresh about the nature of
- self,
- sin,
- salvation.
As we drove back to our chalet at the end of our first evening Game viewing excursion, a car passed us and said if we were heading to a certain area, (which we were), a Leopard had just been spotted. But though it wasn’t far…of course by the time we got there, it was long gone…
...so close but so far!
Oh well.
I was disappointed…but these things happen.
Then next day we were just driving along in a totally different part of the Park with the Elephant grass high on both sides, and came upon a car that had stopped. So we stopped. But we could not see what they were looking at. Eventually the car turned around and passed us …with the news….just moments before we arrived they had followed a Leopard walking along the road, but it had gone into the grass and they lost sight of it.
…so close but so far!
Oh well.
I was disappointed…but these things happen.
Just a minute or so later, another little white car came along beside us and as they passed they asked us why vehicles had been stopped…we explained that Leopard had been spotted but had gone into the grass, and now couldn’t be seen.
They slowly moved on…and we followed…and then they slowed right down and paused... and as we came alongside them about to ask what they were seeing…they silently and excitedly pointed into the grass right near us ….saying they had just seen the Leopard!
They started to slowly move along…maybe to try to follow to see where he went into the grass…but they lost sight of him….and we didn’t see him either!
…so close but so far!
Oh well.
I was disappointed…but these things happen!
SUDDENLY
Something did start appearing…not in the grass, but in my own heart! I was sad…and …needed the first of my Leopard Lessons!
Lesson #1
SELF
Just that morning I had decided to start reading through a book I had purchased a few years back amidst my honour-shame research…a book called ‘Favor’ by Greg Gilbert (which I recommend by the way).
He had a little section in that book about being content enough with the path God has for us, in whatever form that might be, to be able to rejoice with others who are blessed with what you hope for but don’t have!….He used the illustration of two couples he knew who had struggled with infertility and become firm friends…and then one couple announced at church one Sunday that they were finally expecting a baby…and the husband of the other couple volunteered to pray and give thanks on behalf of the church family, for the other couple. As I read that, I thought…yes…been there…know that feeling…and my heart thanked the Lord for how He has allowed us to also live that reality of coming to terms with the joy others have in things we have longed for, but which God has had reasons to not give us on our path.
There was a fleeting thought of ’nailed that one’ of the issue of rejoicing with those who rejoice in such contexts.
But suddenly out in the African bush the next day, it was like the Lord said: "no you haven’t nailed it, on your own without Me you never will, and you’ll have a test that will reveal that again to you."
….and that test came on that road, as I realised that welling up was a seed that threatened to sprout forth into full blown envy, jealousy, and resentment. I realised I was beginning to feel un-satisfied and dis-content that my hopes and expectations weren’t being met. I realised I wasn’t actually rejoicing at that point and didn’t feel much rejoicing for others either.
That Leopard was ’sin crouching at my door’ and it wanted my whole heart for wickedness and not righteousness!
I was suddenly reminded yet again that our hearts, my heart, is deceitful and desperately wicked and wretched, and desperately needs rescuing.
Without Christ we can do ‘nothing’. While we live on this earth, the old nature, the flesh, continues to simmer away below and is ready to spew out as soon as we relax our dependancy on Christ. Once again I needed to be reminded to not set my ‘rejoicing’ thermostat by my own expectations, to not turn a leopard into an idol that could derail my peace, and steal my joy, and deflect the honour and glory that should have been going to God from my heart for the joy that others were having in His creation.
Then came Lesson #2
SIN
I was so close to seeing that Leopard.
It was literally only meters from me for several minutes. In front, along side, and behind.
As we drove along I looked out my window and was even able to see his fresh ‘big pussy-cat paw prints’ in the sand!
I could have got out of the car and even ‘walked where he walked’….
I had now, not only heard about a Leopard, but met several people who had seen the Leopard and experienced something that will be with them for the rest of their lives. They can’t ‘un-experience’ it. It was profound. I could see the excitement, awe and amazement on all their faces.
I interacted with them and heard their stories.
It was all ssooooooo close!
I so, so nearly saw that Leopard for myself!
But nearly is not enough!
Nearly seeing a Leopard is not the same as actually seeing a Leopard!
I still can’t say with any certainty or confidence, ‘I’ve seen a Leopard’.
I can never be a member of a club of those who have seen a Leopard.
Being in the zone of the Leopard doesn’t count as seeing a Leopard.
‘Leopard glory’ can’t be gained by ‘almost’ encountering a Leopard.
This was such a reminder about the reality of sin…
Sin is ‘missing the mark’ - it doesn’t matter how ‘close’ you get to the mark, the target, the requirement…if you miss it, you’ve missed it! My ‘Leopard sighting’ status was no different that morning to what it has been for my lifetime. Whether I was on the other side of the world in Australia, or just a couple of meters away and even seeing a paw-print just pressed into the sand moments earlier, made no difference.
When we later arrived at the Pilanesburg Game Reserve Kiosk and Admin centre, I still could not enter on their viewing records that I had seen a Leopard.
But then came Lesson #3
SALVATION
This ‘leopard-less’ experience also had something to teach me about salvation, about becoming and being a Christian…
...we have to ’see’ Christ for ourselves.
- Being near others who have seen him and know him doesn’t allow us membership in his family.
- Sitting in the zone of other Christians in church doesn’t count.
- Even trips to Israel to ‘walk where Jesus walked’ isn’t enough to say you have met Him face to face.
- And there is a great deal of difference between those who ‘hope’ to have maybe gained something by coming ‘close’, and those who have truly met Jesus.
- And once you have truly ’seen’ Jesus with the eyes of faith in Him, the awe, amazement, joy and excitement will be visible for all to see! The glory of being ‘in Christ’ only comes with a personal encounter with Him.
Then we can sing with John Newton’s ‘Amazing Grace' that ‘I once was blind but now I see’!
…….So I was reminded that :
...there is something greater than having set my eyes on a Leopard,
…. it’s more important to have my eyes set (and fixed) on a LION !
And not just on a four footed African mammal (some of those I have seen), nor on the one who acts like a lion - the devil who prowls around wanting to devour and destroy (1 Peter 5:8).
No,….I will forever need to have my eyes set on a more profound Lion... the Lion of the tribe of Judah…the Lion who is the Lamb, the one who saves and delivers and deals with my eternal destiny…I need Jesus.
It’s so easy to get caught up ‘wanting’ something that is less than what God really has on offer in relationship with Him through His Son.
I was then also reminded again of something I ‘know’ every day in one way or another…but still need to also ‘learn’ every day.
We grow from one degree of glory to another…we are a work in process in the Potter’s hand. The Lord knew I needed to be reminded that we cannot afford any confidence in our own spiritual growth even for a second. Our hope is not in what temptations we think we have conquered or what issues we think we have worked through or what fruit we think we are now managing to produce (ie joy), but our hope in in Christ alone who is our hope of glory. It is only in His power and grace that we live and walk. Without constant leaning on Him, I am doomed to my own sinful desires focused on self. So I say with Paul in Romans 8…that it is only Jesus who can and does rescue us from this body of death and our own wretchedness. What a wonderful Saviour!
So, no I still did not get to see a Leopard…
Are you sad for me?….Don’t be.
Rejoice with me instead that many people that day got to see one of God’s amazing creatures.
And rejoice with me that God had lessons for me to learn and a new level of ‘leaning’ on Jesus to rest in and find joy in.
(and you know these were definitely divinely ‘appointed’ lessons…because we weren’t even going to be on that road. We had chosen a different road and a semi-sleeping elephant who had stopped on the road under a shade of a tree refused to move.
And rule no 1 in the bush is do not drive near elephants, and never pass right beside them or they might flip your car! So we had to turn around and double back and go a different route…that took us to the Leopard Zone)
It might have been nice to say all this…and then say…'oh and then the next day we saw a Leopard'…but we didn’t.
However, God’s blessings during those few days were wonderful and we still saw new sights in the African bush.
And some of those I hope to share in some future blogs.
PS....we did however buy a calendar featuring 13 photos of leopard, in support of the Leopard Project of the Reserve...will be a good ongoing reminder of my 3 Leopard Lessons!
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