"Heart of A Lioness"

Do you remember the line from a hymn that goes like this:

"How blessed the day when the lamb and the lion

Shall lie down together without any ire..."

~(The Spirit Of God)~

Apparently, the world had a glimpse of how this could be starting in 2002. I don't know about you but I did not hear about it until very recently. My daughter was watching Animal Planet a week ago and I just happened to walk into the room. They were showing the story of a lioness who adopted a baby orynx antelope. Not exactly a lamb, but still a creature that a lioness will hunt and tear apart for dinner rather than lie down next to and even nurture. I sat and watched riveted by the documentary and I was moved near tears as the story of this lioness and her adopted baby unfolded. Here's a photo of Kamunyak (the lioness) and the baby orynx.

Isn't this just amazing? It baffled the scientific world. What would make a young lioness in the Samburu Reserve, Kenya, set aside her predatory instincts to adopt a baby orynx antelope? She even gave the baby TLC for 16 days giving up her most basic needs (hunting for food) and proved to be a very compassionate and protective "mother".

What has stirred the heart of this lioness? Even the local Samburu people — who named the lioness Kamunyak, which means "the blessed one" — have never witnessed anything like this before. The orynx calf separated from its mother was hungry and weak. Kamunyak inexplicably "adopted" the orynx and became it's protector from other predators. Refusing to leave her young charge, she was unable to hunt and became undernourished. The Samburu people now seeing Kamunyak as a miraculous lioness urged the reserve warden to help and feed her. He threw her some meat, but she refused to eat. As the days passed she became weaker and less able to protect herself or the orynx from other lions.

If you've read about or seen this documentary you know how it ends. If you have not, then I will not spoil it for you. "The Heart of A Lioness" is scheduled to run on Animal Planet again on October 10 at 4 am and October 19 at 3 pm.

I urge you to watch it. It is an amazing and touching story. Sometimes when I think of a lamb and a lion lying together it seems like such a leap of faith. It defies the natural predator-prey relationship between these creatures. But Kamunyak and her orynx proved it is not really a fairy tale or a figment of a religious person's imagination anymore, is it?

So will "the earth be restored to its paradisiacal glory"? That hymn I previously quoted has these lines, too:

"The Lord is extending the Saints’ understanding,
Restoring their judges and all as at first.
The knowledge and power of God are expanding;
The veil o’er the earth is beginning to burst."

I think that Kamunyak's story has extended my understanding that just because science can't explain some thing it doesn't make it impossible or untrue.