“However, as it is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’—but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. … We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.” (1 Corinthians 1:9-10, 12).
What was God thinking?
I tell you what I think that he was thinking about when he made this magnificent creature.
Perception.
Of all the created land animals God placed in the garden, none stands taller than the giraffe. They frame long and lean. They paint gold and brown. They pattern significant and intentional. They stand strong and proud. And they stretch deep and high with a neck designed…
for perception.
for seeing above and beyond the horizontal.
for reaching high to grasp the provision of One higher.
Of all the creatures I witnessed on my recent trip to the zoo, the giraffes were the ones that garnered my heartiest admiration. They are beautiful beyond description. Seeing them in picture books and movies falls short of the real thing. Pictures don’t breathe as three dimensional. They paint flat. But witnessing a giraffe first hand is like walking into the canvas of a painter’s work in progress. This kind of palette colors vivid and real and alive with a garden’s pulse.
There is something about a giraffe that speaks of Eden.
Giraffes embody man’s impossibility. No test tube or scientific mutation could birth such a divine oddity. Science is too exacting for such an extreme. But God? Well, impossible and extremes are in keeping with his divinity. Eden birthed the limitless possibility of perfection. Its soil grew with the lush and green and abundance of a Father’s creative genius. No creature was too great or too small to pasture its soil. They simply fit.
And woven into that fitting is the one creature that offers a dimensional perspective that completes the picture of sacred visioning.
Giraffes were created with the stretch in mind. Their chins lift higher. Their mouths taste higher. Their eyes see higher. Their thoughts conceive higher, for higher is their assigned portion. Bending to taste from a soil’s dirt is a difficult stretch for a giraffe. But stretching to taste from a tree’s first fruits is an easy and reasonable reach. Giraffes were designed for higher living.
So are we.
God designed us for the stretch. For a perspective that breeds hope and faith and the conceiving of the inconceivable. God intends for us to live tall with our chins toward heaven for the receiving. All too often, though, we are content to mire our thoughts at ground level and to grovel for our soul’s sustenance within the soil of a well-trodden path. Problem is…
Well worn paths have known a good picking and no longer soil the seed of perception.
Giraffes never have that problem. They find pasture with the untasted, less trampled fruits of a higher perspective. Their stretch allows them unlimited possibilities for the feeding. They walk above and beyond the horizontal in order to take hold an abundance that can only be found in high places.
I want to be like a giraffe. I want to find my stretch. I want to see with my eyes, and hear with my ears, and conceive with my mind the sure promise of high living. I think you want this too. But here’s the deal. For high living to happen, we have got to trade in our well-worn perspective for kingdom perspective.
We will never live our stretch until we get our noses out of the dirt and begin to feast on the fruit of an untasted abundance. God has filled our lives with an edenic portion of lush and green and fertile. It seeds in the pages of his Word and in the fellowship of his Holy Spirit.
We have been given everything we need to live at this higher level. We have been given the mind of Christ and the capacity to know the One and only living God. Through the power of his Holy Spirit we can more fully comprehend his thoughts and the spiritual truths that radiate from his core.
This, my friends, is three dimensional living on the canvas of a Painter’s work in progress. It breathes with the palette of Eden’s perfection. It paints with the vertical in mind and with a heart’s stretch that isn’t afraid…
to perceive higher.
to reach further.
to strain for the better.
to press on to take hold of a first fruits’ provision, seeded by the very hands of God.
Indeed, our God was thinking when he made this magnificent creature. Mr. Giraffe has certainly made an impression on me. Thus, I pray…
Thank you, Father, for dreaming the giraffe. I cannot imagine the full measure of your wisdom in the matter, but I am confident that he brings you much joy. He’s led me to my pondering this day and taught me something about living with perception. Forgive me, Lord, when I keep my chin down and refuse the provision of a higher sustenance. Remind me to look up. To live up, and to stretch up in order to take hold of your kingdom perspective. Thank you for perceiving my possibility even when my eyes refuse the vision. You are my mind and my heart’s desire this day. Give me the faith to conceive the inconceivable. Amen.
Copyright © July 2008 – Elaine Olsen. All rights reserved.
I absolutely love these stately creatures (except for their tongues). They also remind me that a body needn’t be symetrical or well-proportioned to be beautiful.
Kathleen
loving your “zoo bible study!!”
Also, I am praying for you while you are ‘on your own’! Praying also for hubby and son…may God be using them mightily!!
hey, where do you do tuesday night bible study?? I am in NC, too!
I have always loved the uniqueness of giraffes. Actually, I have a giraffe magnet a friend gave me to remind me of my unique qualities.
Oh, you tickled my heart with the words of God’s divinity include the impossibles and extremes. Also, the kingdom perspective…oh how I’m counting on that being fulfilled. I know I see things in a platform persecptive and forget to realize the big picture.
You have pricked at my heart what I’ve been pondering for some days…to live beyond my circumstances…to live higher…to stretch my eyes.
May today and every day I grasp the full beauty of the today.
Blessings,
Paula
“Give me the faith to conceive the inconceivable. Amen.”
Amen! Amen!:)
That will be my prayer tonight!
Thank you, Elaine.
God is simply amazing….in every single detail.:)
God Bless,
Amy:)
I have been away a lot in the last two weeks, and I love this study, and I love Giraffes, you are right they are beautiful, and God gave the height for the reasons you stated… I pray things are going well for you…
Connie
GBU
Your post roused my curiosity so to Brittanica I went and to another wildlike site…they taught me:
“Rothschild’s giraffe” of western Kenya and eastern Uganda (Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi) has broader dividing white lines than the reticulated giraffe, and no spotting beneath the knees, so I believe that may be your type in the pictures.
Each giraffe has its own unique spot pattern used to distinguish one individual from another, much like a human fingerprint!
Now, this is how they REALLY relate to human mommies…Observations in the wild indicate giraffes lie down only 5 or 6 hours per night.
During most of this time, the animals remain alert with their necks erect and their eyes alternately open and closed (Do you ever feel like that’s how your night goes?).
Giraffes may go into a deep sleep for only a total of 5 minutes each night. In one study, the longest uninterrupted deep sleep phase was just 2 minutes and 40 seconds. (Now, that was me night beore last!)
I love to watch them walk, their fluidity amazes me and they are truly one of God’s unique creations!
This reminds me of Psalm 3:3….For He is the lifter of my head. I read this the otherday but my head was not clear enough to hear it. I’m listening…I hear.
They are such beautiful creatures are they not? What a creative way to do a Bible study..wouldn’t this make a great kids series for Sunday school lessons? Obviously in their language!!
As always, you are a blessing!!
In His Graces~Pamela
So many lessons to be learned from God’s creatures, big and small. So many lessons to be taught by one who seems to be so intuned to the Mind of God. Thank you for being my teacher.
Blessings and hugs!
Liz
This was a special post for me because when my oldest daughter was here at the first of the summer, we went to Busch Gardens – just the two of us. Ours is a Africa-themed park, and we took a safari tour over the “tundra” to view the animals. We were in the back of a very large truck and were in open-air, when we pulled up to a group of giraffes. The truck stopped and there we stayed for a good half-hour, feeding and generally loving on some of the sweetest faces to occur in the animal kingdom. They truly ARE exquisite works of art and their eyes look to be deep pools of wisdom.
They are VERY God – a physical manifestation of His creativity and penchant for the improbable.
Wow~! I have seen the giraffe totally different! I loved what you wrote here:
God intends for us to live tall with our chins toward heaven for the receiving. All too often, though, we are content to mire our thoughts at ground level and to grovel for our soul’s sustenance within the soil of a well-trodden path.
Very good my friend!
Love the changes you’ve made to your blog! Very pretty! 🙂
God’s creatures so clearly reveal His majesty. Your pictures are gorgeous and the Scriptures that go along are perfect.
Thanks for sharing!
And I love Sassy Granny’s comment… so true!
Elaine, it was reading your comment on another blog today that called me over. Sensing you’re feeling that ‘stretch’ profoundly today. It’s no doubt what made this post so powerful.
Praying for you and loving you,
Joy
Wow! Okay, so if someone calls me “giraffe” (not that I know why they would)… I will gladly take it as a compliment!
Such awesome insights! This made me think of Col. 3:2 “Set your mind on things above, not things of the earth.”
Giraffes are such fascinating creatures. It’s astounding that something so seemingly disproportionate could be so beautiful and graceful.
How I pray today for their perception! To see above and beyond the momentary. Thank you for the reminder of the privilege that is ours…that we too are made for higher living!
Blessings,
Tracy
Oh… I love giraffes more than any other zoo animal. This study is great. I want to know high living.
Thanks so much for sharing all of the insights that God gave you from your outing to the zoo.
Lynn
wifeforthejourney:
Its great to be home and be able to catch up on your posts. What excellent observations about the Creation. Giraffes and humanity; created for “the stretch” of higher living. May I always stay connected to the hungry longing to stretch out to the Lord.
Love you!
Billy