Bronx Zoo. Copyright 2012: singeronthesand
The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion
will eat straw like the ox...they will neither harm nor
destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.
Isaiah 65:25
When I took this picture at the Bronx Zoo, I must admit that my total concentration was on the lion and lioness, hoping against hope that one of them would turn their head toward me (not going to happen!). My attention was so narrowed in on the cats that I never even saw the deer grazing in the background - not when I swept the landscape with my eyes, nor when I peered through the viewfinder of my camera. When I brought this picture up on my computer for processing, I was quite startled to see him there.
When this photo is magnified, you can clearly see a wire fence between the deer and the lions. A wire fence? That wouldn't hold back your average dog, much less a lionness (the hunters of the species). Yet the female cat is lying on the large rock seemingly oblivious to the prey near by, and the deer is not the least bit worried about the predators sunning on the rock. Obviously there is a further barrier between the animals, or else the cats would be lying there with huges smiles on their faces, and there wouldn't be any deer to graze the meadow.
Clearly this picture is not what it seems at first glance. The lions are so nonchalant, and the deer so bold, because they both know that there is no way at all for either of them to get to the other - a knowledge that has been reinforced over the months (years?) that they have been at the zoo. The photo does, however, bring a smile to my face - for it is a portent of how the animal kingdom will react to each other in heaven. There will be neither prey nor predator. The survival of one will no longer depend upon the death of another. All of the animals will live in peace and safety, thoroughly comfortable with each others' presence, and with the close companionship of the human race. I can hardly wait.
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