In Australia kangaroos are a familiar sight. Sometimes they are a pest because they eat grass needed by the many flocks of sheep, and they also trespass into people’s gardens. Even traffic signs warn drivers about kangaroos on the roads.
These animals have small heads and rather large ears, but what is most noticeable is their hind legs and feet. Their front legs and feet (used more like arms and hands) are about half the size of their hind legs and feet, which on some species are three feet long. They also have large tails which give them support when grazing or leaping. Both their tails and the strong claws on their hind feet can be used as powerful weapons when needed.
The great gray and the great red kangaroos are the largest. Before man came to Australia, great numbers of them covered the plains, but shepherds have killed many of them. These big fellows, about 7 feet high, weigh 200 pounds or more and travel in 15-foot leaps. They have no trouble clearing tall bushes and even 9-foot-high fences.
A small kangaroo is called a joey. It is born undeveloped and is only about an inch long. It is amazing that it survives, but God provided protection for these little ones when He created kangaroos. The mother has a pouch shaped like a pocket, close to the ground, where the baby is sheltered from anything that might harm it. Within three minutes after a joey is born, it crawls into this pouch. It could not live any longer than that if it were not for this safe hideout. How remarkable that God gave it this instinct to search for a hiding place so promptly.
When a joey is safely in the pouch, he quickly finds his mother’s milk. Because he is not strong enough as yet to suck, the mother pumps milk into his tiny mouth. This continues for about four months; meanwhile the mother goes about her activities as usual. Soon fuzzy fur begins to appear on the joey. Still he remains in his safe hideout. When he weighs about ten pounds he will begin to venture outside his mother’s pouch. But he is more than a year old before his diet changes from milk to grass. Then he is no longer a joey but is known as a boomer, or sometimes called a roo.
Animals are not able to thank God, but we are. We should not only thank Him for His care over us, but we should also acknowledge His love and accept His gift, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is only through His work on the cross that we can be saved from the punishment of our sins and have everlasting life. Have you accepted Him as your Saviour and thanked Him for dying for you?
JUNE 30, 1996
ML-06/30/1996