Rhinos

Yesterday, we took a day trip to the Kruger National Park. We enjoyed a relaxing day of looking for animals in their natural habitats. As many times as we have visited Kruger we have never seen a leopard. We've seen lion and cheetah but never leopard.

Yesterday, we saw rhino, over and over again. It was pretty unusual because normally we only see one or two rhinos during a visit to Kruger. But yesterday it seemed like every time we turned around we were seeing rhino - the final count at the end of the day was 19. The last ones we saw were a group of 5 and they acted like they were about to fight. Despite seeing all the rhinos and the giraffes, baboons, elephant, warthog, zebra, crocodile, hippo, wildebeest, kudu, impala, mongoose, monitor, and countless beautiful birds, I wanted to see a leopard. All day I kept praying, asking the Lord to let us see a leopard.

As we were nearing the gate to leave at the end of the day I said with a sigh, "I've been praying all day that we would see a leopard...." One of the kids quickly said, "Yeah, and God said, nope, today you are going to see 19 rhinos!"

I have been thinking about that statement over and over since last night. How many times in life have I asked the Lord for one thing and was disappointed because I didn't get it, not realizing that He had answered my prayer with something different, but just as amazing? I am asking the Lord to help me to not be disappointed when I don't get a leopard but to see and be thankful for the rhinos he provides.