Today's Text: "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." 1 Peter 5:8.

 

 

It gets its name from its smell.  When the musk ox gets excited, a substance is secreted from small glands around its eye that smells like musk - similar to that of the musk deer.  However, the Eskimos of the Northern Slope of Alaska call the musk ox "oomingmak", which means "animal with skin like a beard" and it doesn't take much to see why.

 

Their fur consists of two layers - an inside layer made of thick, tightly knit underfelt and an outer layer made up of hollow guard hairs, which look like long drinking straws.  This outside hair grows up to 60cm long and is quite a sight. Hanging from their 1.5 metre high shoulders almost to the ground, they look like a shaggy carpet on legs.

 

In the summer months the musk oxen prefer to live in the valleys near a water supply, but in winter they usually go to places of higher elevation - to places of more intense wind and more intense cold.  Why?  Because it is in these places where the snow is the thinnest.  In places where the winds howl the snow cannot collect in deep deposits, making it easier for the musk oxen to paw through the snow to get their food.  So when a good portion of the animal kingdom head for warmer climates or the low lands - the musk ox head for the hills.

 

Musk oxen like to headbutt.  The males particularly are very headstrong, literally!  The oxen travel in herds of up to three dozen and have a dominant male and it is when another male approaches the herd, the headbutting begins.  The males separate themselves by about 50 metres and then gallop at full speed towards each other for an almightly collision - on par with an average size passenger car colliding with a brick wall at 30 km/ph.  Their 10cm diameter horns, backed up by nearly 8 centimetres of solid bone, protect their brains from the formidable whack!  The oxen have been known to charge people, cars and even birds.

 

This butting also comes in handy when warding off predators.  The main predators of the musk oxen are polar bears, brown bears and wolves.  Their babies are particularly vulnerable weighing only 13-14 kilograms at birth.  When the herd is threatened by an unwelcome predator, the little ones run for the centre of the herd while the older oxen back up, shoulder to shoulder with their horns facing out - ready for the butt.  For wolves this is virtually impenetrable and bears think twice also.  Together the musk oxen keep their offspring safe.

 

When we think about mankind and families, these animals speak to us as parents.  There are certainly many "wolves" seeking to have a piece of families and particularly our children.  In today's society it is increasingly becoming the product of choice for children at younger and younger ages to be left alone with or without friends, cared for by someone other than mum or dad or be babysat by a host of media and electronic entertainment, many times without adult supervision.

 

In essence, children are being exposed to sights, sounds, morals, values and concepts without mum and dad to guide them through the process.  Often they are exposed to concepts and situations far more mature than they are capable of processing in a healthy way.  They spend their most vulnerable years without the protection that God knew they needed and has provided for them in loving parents and a united family circle.

 

The wolves are prowling and where are we as parents?

 

Are we backing up, shoulder to shoulder to protect the innocence of our children, to nurture them, to guide them through the difficult transitions from infancy to adulthood, or are they on their own, left to fend for themselves. 

 

The adult musk oxen sometimes spook and run rather than huddle and protect their youngsters, and it isn't long before the wolves and bears get just what it was they came for.  Is it much different in the human world?

 

I believe that God is shouting out to us through the example of the musk oxen to back up, to press together and to protect our precious children from the wolves that roam our planet and guide them into a friendship with our best friend Jesus.

 

To see a musk ox click here

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