Joey in a Pouch

Joey in a Pouch

For a very short time our family had an unusual pet. We had a baby kangaroo, a joey. His mother had been tragically hit by a passing truck at the side of the road one evening. She was killed instantly and left lying in a pool of blood in a patch of rugged wild grass beside the bitumen highway. A passer by kindly stopped, checked her pouch and discovered a young joey, safe and warm and snug inside, but now all alone in the world. We delightfully accepted the care of the young joey as he was finally passed onto our family. 

The Australian kangaroo lives in a social group called a mob. They are well known for hopping on their strong, hind legs, while using their muscular tails for balance as they manoeuvre around and stand still.The males box each other quite vigorously, which includes kicking with their hind feet, to establish dominance. Female kangaroos give birth to a joey about once a year, after a one month gestation period. The little joey is born hairless and blind and is smaller than a bee. He climbs into the mother’s pouch, stays there to nurse and to continue to develop for 120-400 days. Joeys often peek their heads out of the pouch to look around several weeks before they take off on their own. Our little joey that came to us had been just starting to emerge from the pouch and was beginning to nibble little bits of grass.

Our family enjoyed our gentle joey. We named him Jessie. We created a pouch for him by placing a pillowslip  padded with an old towel on the back of a wooden chair. Jessie would hop awkwardly around the kitchen, then thrusting his head into the pillow case he would then summersault into his “pouch’, sometimes leaving his tail or hind feet protruding slightly. Our little Jessie was unlike other pets our family had had before regarding his body space, there was always more to him. I would see his little, furry, soft ,grey head down beside me in the kitchen as he stood, but I would always find myself forgetting that a long strong tail ran along the linoleum floor behind him. Numerous times I tripped and stumbled over his prominent tail. Jessie was still being nursed, almost fully, when he came to us. A trip to the local vet gave us  supplies in special, very long, thin kangaroo teats, bottles and formula. When we took him outside to enjoy a little hop around and to allow him the delights of taste testing grass, we could only call him back to us by producing the pillowslip, upon which he would hop over to us, and tuck himself away into the pillowcase pouch. Our joey was cute and fun and we enjoyed him very much.

The pouch for our joey was his safety and his protection. I have felt inside a mother kangaroo’s pouch several times. They are soft, very warm, and snug, nurturing places for a baby joey to curl into. When my best friend visited from the USA , we took a day trip to an animal farm where there were tame kangaroos that you could feed and pat. I encouraged my friend to have quick feel of the warm  softness that little joeys snuggle into. My friend had a look of wonderment on her face as she was able to feel for a moment the world of a baby kangaroo.

The Bible often encourages us to be “in Christ”. The apostle Paul used the term numerous times and it seemed to be his favourite way of expressing our relationship to Christ. What does that mean? How can I be “in Christ”? To me the wonder of the kangaroo pouch gives me a glimmer into a life “in Christ”. For a joey, he is “in the pouch”. This environment is a place of protection, of sustenance, it is nurturing, a place of care, of love. In the pouch he is watched over tenderly and in constant contact and connection with his mother. This is the life of what being “in Christ” means to me. I am in  a constant, connected relationship with Christ that is nurturing, protecting, sustaining and full of His care and love for me. 

2 Cor 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come

Rom 8:1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Eph 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.