Wouldn’t it be nice if you didn’t need to eat or drink for weeks or even months? Imagine you were so strong you could carry hundreds of pounds of cargo without requiring one gallon of gasoline, without producing one drop of sweat!
Do you know who I am yet? I will provide more clues! I am long-legged, awkward and ugly. I don’t have the need for liquids for long periods of time because I have three 5-gallon stomachs. I don’t have the need for food for long periods of time because I have this hideous hump of fat on my back that stores energy I need for when I don’t have any food at all.
It may look like I hold my head up high out of arrogance, but in reality, I’m just trying to see out from underneath my big ol’ bushy Andy Rooney eyebrows. Those eyebrows, by the way, are my only eye protection from the bright sun’s harmful rays. I also hold my head up high because it’s easier for me to breathe with my nose up in the air so I don’t have to smell myself. I am not blessed with the pleasant aroma of a cool mountain breeze. In other words, I stink!
And sometimes, when I’m breathing, it may sound as if I am suffering from an advanced stage of emphysema, but in reality, I’m just spitting and snorting because of yet another imperfection. I am ill-tempered.
One of my rewards for being what and who God created me to be was to be classified as unclean. Thank you very much. At least that meant some people wouldn’t eat me, but after carrying people to war, giving them the hair off my back, milk to drink and working so hard they call me the ship of the desert, I would like a little respect.
I am camel. Hear me snort.
I hope you enjoy a good laugh as I describe myself, how the world looks at me and how I look back at the world, but the truth is we may have a lot in common you and me, providing you’re the person God created you to be.
Like you, I think it would be nice to be valued by the world for being who God created me to be, for doing what God created me to do, but it’s obviously more important to be valued by God. Unlike you, I am among the ironies of the Bible. In the Old Testament, when someone owned many camels, it was a sign of wealth and privilege. In the New Testament, Jesus uses me as an example when he says it’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. (Matthew 19, Mark 10, Luke 8). How ironic is that? I can’t speak from the perspective of a rich person. I don’t have material possessions. I don’t have money to give to the poor, but I’ve given everything I have. The weight on my back has never been my own. It’s always been everybody else’s. These are words Jesus himself might speak.
So make do with what you’ve been given and give back what you can. If a smelly camel can have a unique Godly purpose on Earth then what greater significance does God hold for you? Be who God created you to be. Hold your head up high and let the whole world wonder why! You might even get a little respect. All things are possible with God!
Come this weekend to Saturday @ six or Sunday morning at 8:30 or 11 a.m. The message is “The Camel and Me” based on Mark 10.
Honored to write for the camel,
Rev. Dr. Dennis Andrews
Reverend Andrews is Minister at Community Presbyterian Church of Deerfield Beach (Steeple on the Beach) located five blocks south of Hillsboro on AIA. See more @ www.communitych.org or on Facebook.
