Elephants are large and powerful, but often when people see them the reaction is to awe as if they are looking at something cute such as a child.
On the race, it was a goal of mine to touch an elephant and maybe even ride one. My team decided to visit Angkor Wat. Along with seeing the ancient temple, we got to see elephants.
The elephants stood outside one of the temples in a herd. Their trainers sat on top of them with a padded platform for the tourist to sit on. Visitors crowded around the elephants feeding them, touching them and speaking in childish voices to them. They were the highlight of a lot of peoples’ day.
As the crowd died down, I seized my opportunity to get my photo with an elephant. I gently walked up to an elephant, wrapped my arms around its truck and hugged it. I had seen cute photos of girls doing this and honestly didn’t think anything of it because of the amount of people who had just touched them and had their photos taken. Seconds after I wrapped my hand around its trunk, the elephant opened its mouth and began crushing my wrist. In a panic I screamed. The pressure was extremely great and could snap my wrist at any second. With my other arm I pushed off the elephants trunk ripping my hand from the elephants grip. I backed away.
Until then I hadn’t understood the full power of an elephant. Of course I understand elephants are powerful, everyone knows that, but at that moment it became very real. My perspective immediately changed. Here was this animal who had the power to stampede me at any second but for some reason remained clam. To be honest with you I now have a fear of elephants. I still think they are cute, but I understand their power.
I think a lot of people have a misunderstanding of who God is and see Him like I saw the elephant for the first time. We look at God and we know He has power but sometimes we don’t believe it, and when He uses His power, we panic. There is no healthy fear of the Lord. Therefore it creates crippling fear when something doesn’t go as planned, and it leaves us upset and angry with the Lord. When we put God’s power into the correct perspective we are able to understand His love even more. With his great power, He has the ability to crush us at any moment or let us be run into the ground, but He doesn’t. Instead God creates a place for us to approach Him and confess to Him.
