The Leopard

      One cold, rainy summer day in June, I pondered how to entertain my sister,
who was visiting for just a couple of days. She expressed a desire to go to the zoo, so in spite of the
cold weather and drizzle, to the zoo, we went!
      We were the only visitors to the zoo on that cold day, though the drizzle
had stopped and it was rather pleasant. Have you ever been the only person at a zoo? A different experience!
The animals regarded us, as if we were quite the spectacle, almost as if we were the ones on exhibition and not they!
This certainly was interesting for us, and we enjoyed the extra curiosity of the animals—goats, llamas and beautiful birds.
Even the kangaroo showed off!
      We enjoyed this, until we came to the leopard. The young leopard apparently found us
to be interesting, and perhaps detected the faint scent of the goats and llamas, which we had just fed. As we looked
around the cage for the leopard, suddenly, she leaped from her hiding place and raced at us, to her cage screen.
She glared at us with intensity, raced around her enclosure, pranced back at us and this time, she leaped upon her
screen cage wall and scrambled nearly up to the top!!
      In horror, my sister grabbed me and pulled me away, saying, "We have got to run away!"
We both ran for our lives from the leopard cage! When we put a safe distance between us and the leopard cage, and were
assured that she had not successfully climbed out of her cage, we found one lonely zoo ranger and informed him of our
narrow escape.
      With subdued amusement, the zoo official assured us that the leopard could not escape
from its enclosure. "You're the only people here today—a novelty for the leopard and she also associates you with food.
But the leopard is young and playful and not used to captivity."
      With that explanation, we were partly reassured, but did not want to end up as another
"zoo statistic". We did cautiously venture another peak at the leopard some time later and she was more subdued,
perhaps having had a meal at some time?
      How this reminds of the admonition in the I Peter 5:8-9 "Be sober, be watchful.
Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith,
knowing that the same experience of suffering is required of your brotherhood thoughout the world."
      And when we trust Yeshua (Jesus) as the Lord, He is like the shield around us, like the cage,
enclosing that leopard, to keep us safe from harm.