Northern White Rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum cottoni) ~ Armored Vulnerability

Angalifu, the Northern White Rhinoceros, has just died at the Wild Safari park in San Diego.  i am stunned; not only because i grew up in San Diego and had seen the animal as a child, but because his death brings the species one step closer to extinction.  There are now only 5 individuals left on the planet.  There is essentially no hope of saving the species, though genetic material has been preserved with the hopes of someday reviving the majestic race.

Later that evening as I sat quietly by myself, I reflected on all my memories of the rhinoceros from my time living in Tanzania.  I thought of sun-baked backs at Serengeti, of black eyes peeping shyly from jungles in Manyara, of horns like towers breaking up through Ngorogoro mists at dawn.  There are only two types of white rhino, and one of them will surely disappear by the time my life is over.  The black rhinoceros is certainly on the brink of extinction as well.  Will my children ever see the rhino?  Will my grandchildren?

My father is an artist.  One time he showed me a picture.  Here it is:

It’s called Dürer’s Rhino.  What makes this piece significant is that Dürer never saw a rhinoceros.  He based the image on notes and a sketch done by another artist in Lisbon.  The beast hadn’t been seen in Europe since Roman times.  By gazing at the drawing i get a sense that this creature was almost mythological to him.  In the caption Dürer includes this statement:

“It is almost invulnerable.  It has a strong pointed horn on the tip of its nose, which it sharpens on stones.  It is the mortal enemy of the elephant, for, when they meet, the rhinoceros charges with its head between its front legs and the elephant is unable to defend itself.  It is said that the rhinoceros is fast, impetuous and cunning.”

But is it not invulnerable, Dürer!  It is disappearing like the mists of Ngorogoro, like fog melting in the rising sun, and no one can stop it.  Will those horns, like white spires, reach up into the sunlight once more?  Is it too late for the rhino?  

What if instead of viewing the rhinoceros as an invulnerable creature, we had viewed it as a gift?  Would less men have hunted it for the sake of stroking their prowess?  Would that have changed this animal's fate?

We often see something as unassailable, and thus we assail it full force.  i believe there are individuals who do the same thing.  There are certain people who have built for themselves a suit of armor to protect them from the world.  This is not because they are powerful, but because they are vulnerable.  We often see this in the case of the school bully.  He snorts and tosses his head and charges at the other children.  And he is often the weakest.  The dog that barks loudest is the one that knows he'll lose the fight.  

In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said some very strange words: "Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you".  Why did He say this?  Jesus loves the rhinos of this world just as much as the 'vulnerable', because they themselves are just as assailable.  In this life we will meet people who charge us, who want to do battle.  We are not obligated to spend a lot of time with these people!  But we are charged with loving them by the greatest authority, Jesus Himself.  Let us not attack in kind, but let us recognize armored vulnerability.