Three eyelids

"Oh look, there's the camel," I pointed as we drove a new friend to kayak with us.
"What?" Emma swirled her head around and stared, "Oh my! It is a camel! I haven't seen a camel since I was about 5 years old!"

I pulled over so we could walk up close to the camel. Even I have not seen a camel this close before. They have some of the most unusual mouths I have ever seen. The upper lip is cleft, and both lips are loose, like big flapping pancakes. The lower teeth point almost horizontally forward. When it chews, it does so with a circular motion, lips flapping open with every bite. The sign said, "May bite. Don't feed."
"What would you feed a camel anyway?" asked Emma.
"Sand," said Asherel.

We watched the camel eating not sand, but hay, our mutual gazes transfixed. It did not seem possible that those strange front teeth could chew anything but it seemed to be consuming the hay somehow. It had thin slitty nostrils which sparked a memory in my store of animal facts.
"Did you know they can shut their nostrils? " I asked.
"I didn't know that," said Emma politely.
"Yes, that's to keep the sand out in a sandstorm."
Asherel added, "They have three sets of eyelids. One set is clear so they can close them during sandstorms and still see."
"And did you know camels are natural pacers?" I asked, drawing on my recent knowledge gleaned after our Tioga Race Track experience and having researched if pacing was a natural gait for a horse.

"I rode a camel once," said Asherel.
"You rode an elephant....are you sure you rode a camel?"
"I think I did."
"How would you ride a one hump camel?" I asked, as we watched our one hump friend chewing, it's 3 eyelids currently  half closed, "I don't think you could ride on top of the hump. I think the hump changes size. I think it is where water is stored. I might be lying about that...but I think that is correct."
"But that's where the people ride in cartoons," said Asherel.
"Yes but people fall off cliffs and bounce in cartoons too," I said.
We watched the camel a few more minutes and then headed on to other adventures.

When I got home, I googled "Do Camel's store water in their humps?" I discovered that of the top ten animal myths, this one is number 3. Camels excel at retaining water in their kidneys and intestines, but the hump is just a mound of fat. However, if the camel comes across a journey where there is nothing to eat, he can live 3 weeks off of his hump. Of course, having enhanced my wealth of animal knowledge that far, I had to find out what was myth number one?

Animal Myth #1: Lemmings do not commit suicide by jumping off cliffs en masse. They do migrate in large numbers and their migrations do sometimes include jumping off cliffs and swimming, which they sometimes do to the point of exhaustion and then drown. They do not jump off the cliff in hopes of drowning, however. Intent makes all the difference.

"Why is the camel here?" asked Emma.
"It is part of a Christian theater group that does live nativities," I said. We glanced back at the donkey housed with the camel that undoubtedly was used to carry Mary to Bethlehem.

You just never know what you might see if you keep all your eyelids open, what wealth of interesting facts await your discovery. I have never ever understood boredom. Even flat on your back with no physical strength left, you have your thoughts.... and thoughts are miraculous in and of themselves. I can spend hours just circling around the phrase, "I think, therefore I am." I mean, how do you know you are thinking in the first place? And how do you know that thinking can be equated with reality? How do you know that you know? Etc....

At any rate, I think sometimes God throws in the unusual, the miraculous to jar us out of complacency. The more I examine the things I pass by every day, the more I am awash in wonder. How do three sets of eyelids evolve by accident? Personally, I think it is good we humans only have one set of eyelids. I think too often we are looking around with our eyes wide open and still missing what God is hoping we will see.

2 Kings 6:16-18 (New International Version)

 ¹⁶ “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
 ¹⁷ And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, LORD, so that he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.