The nature of the beast

You can never depend on an animal to always, always behave to your standards - in every domesticated and tamed animal is a wild animal lurking below. It’s one of the things that scares me most when I think about the people who tour the Grand Canyon while riding on a mule, or ride up a mountain on an animal - no matter how much the animals have been trained, they’re still animals. They may decide to wander off the mountain, right? I mean, who's to say they won't wander a few feet just because they want to? By nature, no matter how much they've been tamed, they're still wild.

It’s just the nature of the beasts.

I've been thinking a lot about this phrase lately, because while the title "beast" typically has a negative connotation, they're mentioned several times in the Bible as the "beasts and creatures of the fields." The essence of a beast's spirit is wildness and ferocity, even danger - and those are the characteristics that apply to both the devil and our Savior.

Take lions, for instance - one of nature's most fierce animals. The devil is referred to multiple times as a lion, quite strong and ready to destroy all traces of God's army in the world.

“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8

He’s sneaky and deceitful, and in his limited power he looks for someone to tear down. He’s full of pride and bubbling over with envy and selfishness, and we are the targets of his anger. The scary, hard to swallow part is that he is intentional about seeking out God's children and targeting their faith.

Yet in the face of this deceitful beast, we have another beast defending us - a good beast, a wild and free and ever-strong beast named Jesus. I don’t mean this in a negative sense at all, comparing Jesus to a beast - several times, the Bible refers to Christ’s fierce, protective love and the proclamation of His name to a lion’s roar. 

“They shall go after the LORD; he will roar like a lion; when he roars, his children shall come trembling from the west." Hosea 11:10

When we seek God, we must know the nature of Him who we seek. Wild, in that we can’t control Him, tame Him, put Him in a box or cage so we can understand or control Him. Strong, in that He pursues us relentlessly with a powerful, protective love. Dangerous, in that He asks all of us. 

He is far bigger, and his qualities of love and strength far more magnified, than we perhaps have ever acknowledged. To love Him intimately and come close to Him is, in many ways, daring to put all of ourselves on the line. Relinquishing control of our situations in order to surrender to His hand. It's one the scariest actions to finally do, because it requires 100% trust in what He will do with us. We must believe He's good through and through, and will care for us to the end. We can't dare not to dare to experience this love and strength for ourselves, to come close to Jesus and see that a lion of love awaits us.

However, if we come close, we must know that He is who He is, and He will not be tamed by our demands or requests - it is simply His nature. This wild and crazy and strong love isn't something that we can control, but it is something we can surrender to and trust that we will be taken care of and protected by the strongest of loves.

"...draw near. Nearer still, my son. Do not dare not to dare. Touch me. Smell me. Here are my paws, here is my tail, these are my whiskers. I am a true Beast." - Aslan, by C.S. Lewis