Stubborn Camels
Journey of the Magi
Here’s something you probably didn’t know: camels were domesticated by frankincense traders to make the long journey from Southern Arabia to the Middle East, a distance of about 900 miles! Job 16:13 uses the term “gall” to mean “that which is bitter.” And these camels, despite their ability to travel long distances and carry heavy loads, were sick of the journey! They laid down and, as their famous stubborn nature implies, simply refused to move. The Biblical account of the Magi does not mention that they traveled on camels.
I can relate, however, to Eliot’s description of the camels as being “sore-footed.” After nineteen years of caring for an ill spouse and more hospitalizations and surgeries than I care to remember, I was “sore-footed” in those last months before my husband died. In a word, exhausted. Like the camels, I wanted to just lay down—probably not in the snow—and call it a day. But unlike the camels, I knew that I needed to finish my journey as a wife because of the promise I had made at the altar.
REFLECTION: There were many times during the years of Ron’s illness when I just wanted to lay down and quit. Have you ever wanted to give up, even though you—unlike the camels—knew your journey was worthwhile?
Yes, as many others feel this, I have as well. My husband died suddenly from cancer at the cusp of our early retirement. In the following year my MIL began a long, slow descent into dementia and after ten years, at the age of 102, she passed away last fall. It was an adventure fraught with many emotions and exhaustion on many fronts. I was worn out, wanting to lay down and have others care for me. I am still building myself back up from this place of depletion. We do not realize the full extent of that drain, body, soul and spirit, until we are on the other side of the events and have to build ourselves back up from that place of total exhaustion.
Yes, there have been many things in my life I've wanted to quit over the years. But, as a Christian, I chose to lay them down before God and allow Him to direct the outcome. Easy? Hardly. But, He's more trustworthy than I am.