Lambs and Leopards

When it was quiet you could hear the lamb bleating in its cage on the edge of campus. At night students could hear it stumbling around the tiny enclosure voicing its soft little lamby thoughts into the darkness…baaa…baaa….baaa….but everyone waited for the moment the leopard arrived and they would hear baaa….BAAA….B…and silence. Yikes. Good luck trying to sleep. Thankfully my dorm wasn’t near the cage.

It was a normal week at school except for the Leopard sighting up behind the campus. Life went on except we were told to stay in groups if we were walking around at night. The first couple nights it was a little spooky at times but we quickly forgot about the Leopard as boarding school life moved along at its usual frenetic pace. But that didn’t stop the school Prefects from taking advantage of the situation. Yes, we had prefects like Harry Potter, just no robes or wands. In fact, they had quite a bit of authority over younger students they were assigned to. “Responsible” older students were chosen to live in the dorms of the younger students and sort of be big brothers or big sisters to the younglings. One day of the week it was the Prefects’ responsibility to get the dorm up and ready for breakfast, and one evening of the week they had to get the kids ready for bed. Often, if the younger students were giving them a hard time the Prefects would have them write lines, run laps or do some extraordinarily creative tasks as a punishment. One of my favorites was hearing that a student had to get up at six in the morning, go outside and collect ten different varieties of leaves, show the Prefect and then they could go back to bed! My brother’s dorm was situated on the edge of campus closest to where the Leopard was sighted. And this week, with the Leopard on the prowl, students were threatened by the Prefects to follow directions or do a lap of the building at night by themselves! I think everyone behaved.

Much to the lamb’s great relief, the Leopard was never captured. The lamb grew to be a tender juicy sheep that became mutton curry for a human instead. The leopard “scare,” if you would, was not the only time that happened at school. There was a tiger sighting in the area and we were given the same caution to stay in groups at night. In fact, after I graduated they actually had to hunt and kill a man-eater. Despite these cautions, my brother prayed that he would see a tiger in the wild before he left India. Sure enough, camping overnight and hiking through the forest, he saw a tiger drinking water on the other side of the river. Again, I don’t know how anyone slept that night. I suppose the Philadelphia area has turned me into a city-boy.

I would have to say leopards are one of my favorite animals. They are beautiful, graceful and powerful. They bring glory to God, but are best enjoyed at a distance. Leopards are stealthy and generally scared of people. I had never seen one in the wild but I always knew it was a possibility when we were out hiking or camping, just as my brother saw the tiger. On one hand I would have loved to see one sitting in a tree or leaping from a rock when we rounded a bend on a hiking trail, but on the other hand I had seen footage of leopard attacks across India and heard the creepy stories of Leopards snatching small children in the villages.

Their cunning and ferocity illustrate how we do not live in a safe world. Beauty and wonder and terror and pain are painted across all aspects of the globe. A precious, soft lamb, innocent and pure can be viciously ravaged by a hungry, heartless leopard. It’s a violence that is normal to this life. At least the leopard's violence is purposeful and necessary for the leopard’s survival. Heartbreakingly, human acts of bravery, heroism and kindness are often only necessary due to the cruelty, malice and evil that overflows from human hearts. Just check the news.

For many years, my parents sought to work alongside Pakistani and Indian Christians and spread the good news of Jesus Christ across South Asia. In a world of leopards we are called to be lambs like our Savior, Jesus, the Lamb of God. We are called to love sacrificially even in the face of daunting terror. Of course in my comfy, suburban American home it is easy for me to sit bravely behind my keyboard. May God give me courage to love sacrificially when I am challenged. While none of us have the power to change the world at large or the human condition, we can do our little part in our little spheres of influence. My dad once told me “what you would do for hundred do for one.” If you can’t help everyone, be the love of God to that one person in front of you.

We know that the Lord will make all things right and new in His timing, even peace between lambs and leopards. The prophet Isaiah says that when Jesus returns there will be peace and justice to the point where even “the leopard shall lie down with the young goat” (from chapter 11).

Until then, fellow Lambs: we take courage, we love, we trust, we work and we wait.

Seth

P.S. If you appreciate or enjoy the work I am doing at Marvelous India, feel free to say thank you by buying me a cup of chai!

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