2013 A.D.: Creation Testifies: The Donkey's Cross!
The Holy Father created all things, and He could foresee all events that would unfold from the very beginning. So of course, He foresaw the terrible sacrifice that would be required if any men at all were to be saved. He gave humans free will so that we could become willing servants rather than slaves, but men misuse free will terribly. We really cannot govern ourselves. We've proven it. We murder, adultery, lie, steal, disrespect our maker. We are pathetic. So, without knowing God's thoughts, we can none the less know that He foresaw the need for the sacrifice that His Son Jesus would one day make.
And it appears that He designed proof of this foreknowledge into some of the key animals that would be associated with Jesus and the Christian Church that His sacrifice would lead to.
Take the Donkey: a good man hailing from Jamaica recently showed me an amazing thing about certain donkey breeds, and the donkey is a key Biblical animal. Jesus came to Mount Zion for the last time on some sort of donkey it seems. He rode one, and led an unmounted one beside Him as He approached Jerusalem on that day that we call the Triumphal Entry. Shortly after that He was to die on the cross. From Matthew :
"Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass."
As an infant, Jesus' father Joseph fled with his family to Egypt, heeding a warning from God. Had he not, King Herod might have found and killed them all. He wanted to, anyway! They probably fled on a donkey. The donkey was often associated with Jesus.
When Jesus was born, his pregnant mother Mary was probably carried to Bethlehem on a donkey. It would have been likely in that day and time. Riding camels were more expensive, and full-sized horses were both more expensive and rarer.
Balaam the prophet was on a donkey when he traveled the narrow stone path between two stone walls, and the donkey could see a great angel ahead which Balaam could not see, so it rubbed his leg against the wall, and eventually refused to move. Balaam was beating the donkey at the moment that he too was given the power to see the angel blocking his path. A great messenger (the angel) and a straight and narrow path. Those could connote Jesus, right?
So, if the donkey is associated with Jesus and with events that seemed to point prophetically to Jesus, were there any signs or markings given to it to predict this special association? Perhaps! Take a look. See how the Holy Father chose to design some types of the donkeys that He created with a very special and unusual marking. What do you think? Could it be even more proof of Christ embedded into the Creation? Below are some top view pictures of this type of donkey. Their markings are pretty amazing in my opinion, given the role they have played in scripture, transporting Jesus Himself at times. Whether it was this type of donkey that Jesus rode I could not say. But who knows? Pretty amazing indeed. You can search on the internet for 'donkey cross' and find more images to look at, of course.
