The camel is an enigmatic soul

Seen at a distance, the camel has grace, serenity, timelessness. Watch one of those snips of travelogue film of a caravan at sunset, moving along the crest of a sand dune. It is so suggestive, so evocative, so other worldly, so romantic. One can almost hear the beautiful young Scheherazade beginning one of her thousand and one tales of the Arabian nights.

At close quarters, you will find the camel to be obstreperous and ill mannered. He will spit in your eye as soon as stand on your foot. He has bad breath, is flatulent, wayward, and no respecter of his fellow creatures or of property. He takes firm handling. On a picket, he will slobber all over his halter, causing the knot to jam, unless you can tie the camel hitch. He can’t be bridled like a horse, can’t be controlled by a bit in his mouth. The first foot or so of his halter must be metal chain or he will eat it. His teeth and chops are like the crusher in a scrap yard. He can enjoy munching on acacia thorns like you slurping strawberries and cream.

And yet he is so damnably useful and capable. He can walk for weeks without food or drink. He can just sit stock still while a sandstorm rages about him for days, then when it abates, he just shakes his head, rouses himself, and plods on his way.

In fact, we have camels to thank for the visit of the Magi. We only know they came ‘from the East’. Well if you look across the Jordan from the west bank, there’s thousands of miles of ‘East’ to go at, before you get interrupted by China, or Mongolia. If the Magi only came from Persepolis, a great Persian seat of learning at the time, that’s still over a thousand miles. They couldn’t have done it without camels.

It is interesting to note that the Magi form the first Gentile (that includes us) first Gentile connection to the Nativity story. Until their arrival, this birth of a Messiah had been a wholly Jewish affair. It might well have remained so. Do we know at what point God decided not to be so selective? The message to the shepherds included the phrase ‘peace towards men’- not to my chosen people, not to the Jews- just ‘men’. I wonder what stories the Magi told on returning, and who listened. I’m not suggesting that they were the first evangelists, but don’t forget – God decided on their involvement with the creation of that star, and as the Magi might have said at the time- ‘That wasn’t yesterday’.

Did you know that one of the earliest known titles of the Abyssinian Emperor was ‘Lion of Judah’?

I wonder, what does the camel know that he’s not telling us?