Certain animals look as if they could only have sprung from the imagination of Doctor Seuss.
One of those is the gerenuk antelope, a reclusive member of the gazelle family that lives in the semi-arid grasslands and deserts of east Africa. Europeans didn’t even know of their existence until 1879.
“Gerenuk” is derived from a Somalian word that means “giraffe-necked.” Indeed, these creatures appear to be what you would get if a giraffe and a deer somehow ended up in a blender.
A gerenuk’s legs and neck are both long and thin. Its tiny head, which is flat and wedge-shaped, is topped by huge ears. Its large, soulful eyes are likely to bring to mind the cutest stuffed animal you had growing up.
Gerenuks are less than a yard tall and may weigh only about 50 pounds. But they have the amazing ability to stand on their hind legs and reach tree branches more than six feet above the ground. Their long tongues are specially crafted to bypass thorns and go right after the soft leaves and tissues of various plants.
But here’s the craziest thing about gerenuks:
They never drink water.
Gerenuks have been observed standing in rain showers, but zoologists believe that’s primarily a strategy to cool off. They are otherwise fully adapted to taking in the water they need by means of feasting on succulent vegetation.
Things could hardly be more different for human beings.
As the old saying goes, people get into real trouble if they go three minutes without air, three days without water, and three weeks without food.
Rivers are mentioned 150 times in the Bible. In the arid Middle East, a river was a place where things could grow and thrive.
But for the most part, significant rivers – like the Nile, Tigris, and Euphrates – are located somewhere beyond the Promised Land. Aside from the fickle Jordan, there are no reliable surface streams in Israel. Jerusalem is unquestionably the most important city in the world without access to a navigable waterway. In Bible times it was watered by a single spring.
Instead of lush gardens, Palestine and Judea have always been characterized by barren wastelands.
That seems to be no accident. On the pages of the Old Testament, the lives of God’s people are repeatedly shaped by times in the wilderness – times of wandering, exile, and escape. There are more than a dozen different wilderness accounts within the story of David alone.
In the wilderness, water makes all the difference. Thirst becomes associated with spiritual yearning and the daily struggle just to survive.
David writes, “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1).
Likewise, the prophets describe the availability of water as evidence of God’s care for his children: “They shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them, for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them” (Isaiah 49:10).
Jesus, on a number of occasions, identifies himself metaphorically as the most important thing in life. He is Light, Truth, the Way, Resurrection, Bread, and Life itself.
No wonder he tells a Samaritan woman, who is drawing water from a well, that he alone can provide the kind of water that once and for all quenches our thirst for God: “Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13).
Jesus goes on to say that such water not only flows into us, but flows out of us as well.
“Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:37-38).
As we rely on the Holy Spirit, we can become a life-giving spring of living water for others whose hope is running dry.
Gerenuks may not need to spend time at the water cooler.
But you can always know that God is able and willing to quench your deepest thirst.
No matter what wilderness you happen to find yourself in right now.
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