Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so. God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good. – Genesis 1:24-25

Can you imagine being at God’s side as He was creating the world, watching it all unfold?  I see the world as an amazing display of diversity, creativity, elegance, planning and interdependence.  Mountains, storms, sunrises, ocean waves and stars all show just a glimpse of His power and glory.  With the beauty we see amid a fallen and sinful world, I can only imagine what heaven will be like.

With Heather’s mom and sister visiting us for a couple of weeks, we decided to go on a safari trip to Kenya’s Masai Mara National Preserve to see some of God’s creation.  Masai Mara is world renowned for its’ prolific game wildlife.  The timing of our visit to the park coincided with a unique natural phenomenon occurring in the Mara, the wildebeest migration.  Depicted in Disney’s animated movie, The Lion King, the wildebeest migrate from the Serengeti region of Tanzania during the dry season north into Kenya for literally greener pastures.

We spent one night of our two day journey to Masai Mara in Kakamega Forest Preserve, the last remaining rain forest in Kenya.  In the Kakamega Forest, we saw colobus monkeys and many amazing and unique flowers.  The following day, we drove through Kenya’s tea country and part of the Great Rift Valley.

Some African roads can be brutal to vehicles.  The seemingly indestructible Toyota Land Cruiser we hired to travel to the Mara had a fuel tank leak, flat tire and nearly rolled over in a gulley while crossing a river.  Fortunately, the Land Cruiser high centered on the rear differential, thus preventing a rollover.  Vibrations from roads that looked more like the moon than a travel platform removed none less than a door lockset, the hood prop rod, a cover to one of the batteries and the entire front grille.

The sheer volume of game in Masai Mara was mind boggling as we saw thousands upon thousands of wildebeest and zebra.  The zebra apparently migrate with the wildebeest, sometimes leading the wildebeests in long lines reminiscent of cattle drives or rush hour traffic.  Other similar game included topis, hartebeests, gazelles, impalas, bush bucks and dik-diks.

With all of this tasty game around, lions are sure to be lurking.  With our Masai guide that we hired from the tented camp where we were staying, we found three prides of lions and two solitary lions.  The largest pride numbered about 18, while the smallest was only four.  We saw lion cubs, adolescents, lionesses and males with huge manes.  The alpha male of the smaller pride was so close to us we had to close our windows while watching him rub the side of our vehicle.  One of the solitary male lions had just caught a wildebeest, which he was dragging over to some tree cover.

A rare sight, we found a cheetah that had just killed an impala.  With several safari vehicles around, the cheetah seemed irritated at these large noisy animals and just wanted to get on with his meal.  Returning later in the day, the cheetah had left little more than bones of the impala on the savannah.

Spotting a black rhinoceros rumbling about, we witnessed another rare sight.  Not surprising, the rhino sighting caused quite a traffic jam of safari vehicles.

Other animals we viewed in their natural habitat included forest elephants, savannah elephants, giraffes, hippos, Cape buffalos, ostriches, warthogs, jackals, hyenas and birds.  God’s creation is complex, elegant and amazing in so many ways.  We feel fortunate to have seen parts of His creation that He took special care in creating.

And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.” – Revelation 5:13