But the rabbit in the pot came hopping out and sniffed at each of the three sleeping forms. When he came to Melzar’s face, the rabbit’s whiskers must’ve tickled a bit. Melzar muttered a “Stop that;” giggled; turned over…and fell off his perch.
“Ouch!”
Beorn was already up—“the rabbit” had disappeared—the human desert traveler was tying his things to his camel.
“Better wake Hathach. We need to get moving.”
“Right;” Melzar said, moving toward Hathach. He whispered, “Did you see the rabbit?”
“What rabbit?”
“Ra…never mind.”
Melzar and Hathach got on their camels and were moving, perhaps not quite as quickly as Beorn would’ve liked, but it had been, after all, only their first night. They would improve. That day, they made good time, wearing nomadic clothing—those veils—from the beginning. The only thing that slowed them down even a little was Hathach’s cries of: “Look! Look!”
They did not take time this day to kill and cook but chewed on cured meat Hathach had brought and munched on raisins. What took surprising little time was the watering of the camels, for the amount they drank. Because Beorn knew how to travel in the desert going from watering hole to watering hole, there was always enough. But my, the amount of water those camels could drink! But of course the group dared not move onto the next stop until the camels had drunk to their full.
The three would dismount, lead their animals to the water, and…it seemed the camels forgot for a few minutes about their loads, their journey, their masters. All they could think of was “drink”. While a camel is filling up on water like that, it is doubtful even a strong man could pull him away from the spring. Melzar, Hathach, Beorn never once had to worry about someone running off with one of their camels.
“Treat your camel well, and he will serve you well,” Beorn once said to the two men, while patting his tan friend on the side of the neck. “A righteous man regards the life of his animal, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.’ (Prov.12:10)
“It says that in the sacred writings?” Melzar was surprised. “I thought those writings were about the Yahweh God and man, not about animals!”
“The way a man treats animals says a lot about how he feels about God,” Beorn explained; “Yes, it is in there. My mother said the first job man was given when Yahweh made him was to give names to the animals.
Yahweh said, Okay, anything you like: ‘Spot’ or ‘Mr. President’ or ‘Ling-Ling’ or whatever name you want.”
Hathach interrupted. “Wait. You don’t mean ‘give animals names’, like: ‘You’re an elephant’, ‘You’re a tiger’, ‘I’ll call you a horse’, ‘You’ll be called hippopotamus’, etc…? You mean ‘name’, name?”
Beorn looked back at him. “All right. The next person you see walking his pet, Ask its name, and it’s close to 100% sure the owner will not say, ‘I just call him “dog” or say “come here, cat”.’ I think he will call him by a ‘name’ name. And when Yahweh looks at me, He doesn’t just love ‘that human being’, but He loves me, Beorn.”
People who can be cruel to animals show they have a cold relationship with God too. They don’t realize they can be on a first-name basis with Him.”
“First-name basis?”
“To tell you the truth, I’m not real clear on this. I wish my mother were here to tell you. She said it has to do with the Star leading us to Israel. Yahweh will send us special Help to be able to understand all truth. Including this first-name thing.” Beorn looked almost pained that he could not answer more clearly.
Hathach spoke up. “That’s good enough for old Hathach. Melzar, isn’t that good enough for you too? If any father tells his sons that he’s got a treat coming for them but he can’t tell them about it yet--they’ve just got to leave it up to him, don’t you think they should? Especially if that father always gave good surprises in the past, and if the son who knew him best already decided to believe him.
It seems to me Yahweh has already shown Himself trustworthy to Beorn and his mother who know Him far, far better than we do, Melzar. If they are willing to let Him care for the rest of their lives, can’t we believe Him too? Of course we can! We can, and we will do no less.
Beorn’s eyes showed both thankfulness for Hathach’s words as well as a bit of surprise. It sounded like this white-bearded man had thought through much for himself. Beorn wanted to hear more from him.
“Maybe another waterhole,” he thought; “it looks like the camels are done.”
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