In a book called A View from the Zoo by Gary Richman, he tells about the birth of a giraffe. The first thing to emerge is the baby giraffe’s front hooves and head. The baby giraffe falls 10 feet and lands on his back with his legs tucked under his body. The mother giraffe then positions herself directly over her calf. Then she does the most unreasonable thing. She swings her legs outward and kicks her baby so that it is sent sprawling head over heels. When it does not get up, this violent process is repeated again and again. The struggle to walk is painful. Finally the calf stands for the first time on wobbly legs, and then the mother kicks the baby off its feet yet again. Why? She wants it to remember how it got up. In the wild, baby giraffes must be able to get up quickly to stay with the herd or the predators will quickly kill her. I’m sure this doesn’t make any sense to the baby giraffe, but the mother knows something valuable can come from that painful process. Pain, trouble, and problems are part of the growing and maturing process. Often short term pain saves us from even greater pain down the road. In the hard stuff, God teaches us things that are valuable. Perhaps that is why James wrote, “When trouble comes, consider it opportunity for greater joy.”
– Dr. Tim Thompson