The Great Tiger
Value: Blessed are the Merciful
“What do you mean I do it wrong? All coyotes hunt.” Rodney defended himself when
his best friend George Coyote accused him of being “too cruel” when he hunted.
Rodney was right about one thing. All coyotes and in fact, every living thing
hunts for its food and that is the way God created the world to be for now.
There is a whispered belief in the coyote community that a world will be one day
where all creatures would be at peace together and God would provide all the
food and nobody would have to hunt or be hunted but that’s not the way it is now
so Rodney knew his instinct to hunt was not evil.
But Rodney had a love of the hunt that was far more intense than any other
coyote he knew. He lived for the hunt. But it wasn’t just hunting that he loved.
He loved to corner a rabbit or small animal and see how terrified it was and
make it stay like that instead of using the methods his mother and uncles taught
him to hunt quickly and efficiently. No, to Rodney, the stalking and “playing
with” his pray was exciting.
“That’s what I am talking about.” George said. It’s kind of gross Rodney so why
don’t we hunt separately for a while.
George’s scolding and change so he couldn’t hunt with the pack upset Rodney but
he considered them all to be just weak and not as good as hunting as he. So he
hunted alone. “I might as well hunt alone.” He said to himself since he was the
only one still talking to him. “I am the only real expert at it. Who needs the
pack anyway when I WHOOP…………”
Rodney felt himself falling and then there was a THUNK. The "Thunk" was Rodney
hitting the bottom. Rodney had toppled down a steep incline that dropped off at
the end about 20 feet from the bottom. He stood up and looked around. It wasn’t
a pit like the hunters use to capture wild animals. It was a ravine that used to
be a dead end canyon but it had been closed off after a rockslide. Three of the
walls were sheer slick wall that went up 20 feet before there was a ledge which
then sloped up to where Rodney had fallen from. The fourth wall was solid rock
from the landslide and unclimbable.
Now Rodney knew what the pack was for. Suddenly he was terrified at being
trapped at the bottom like this. Rodney was trapped. He paced from end to end of
the tiny space he had to himself and tried his best to figure out how to escape
but no good. He yelped for help but no good. He was starting to panic. He knew
very well that he could starve to death in this pit without anyone even knowing
he was here. “This couldn’t get much worse.” Rodney said to himself pacing and
trying to leap up the walls only to fall with a painful YELP!
Then it got worse. Night began to settle in. As Rodney strained his eyes to see
if anyone was coming to help him, he saw a huge shadow pass over the ridge. Then
that shadow moved down the embankment and settled in on a very wide flat bed of
grass right above the 20 foot rock wall. Rodney froze in place but did not make
a sound for fear of what it could be. He hunkered down in fear trembling and
finally fell asleep.
Before Rodney opened his coyote eyes, he heard the rumble. It was like a loud
roar of one of the human engines but different. It was an animal. And it was
coming from where that dark shape was last night. It was almost like a purr but
very very loud. Slowly he let one eye open and then he squeezed it shut in
terror. It could not be. But he forced his eyes open and it was true. What sat
on that ledge was as large as a small rhinoceros but it was covered in a smooth
matt of stripped fur that could only belong to one being. They said it was a
myth, something someone made up to scare little coyotes but there he was. It was
Havohej, the Great Tiger. He stared directly at the tiny coyote with piercing
eyes but he did not blink. And he was purring.
“Wake up little one.” The mighty tiger spoke. Rodney reluctantly opened his eyes
and stood to face his doom.
“Are you Havohej, the Great Tiger?” He said with his voice quivering.
“Yes and I know you. You are Rodney, the cowardly coyote who makes his hunt a
game of terror for those he finds, who finds cruelty to be fun and a way to take
joy where there is none inside you.”
“Are you going to kill me?” Rodney said his voice seeming squeaky and small more
like a mouse than a predatory coyote. Suddenly a mighty roar burst from the
chest of the powerful cat. The roar was so startling and powerful it blew Rodney
off his feet and he hit the wall opposite where Hovohej was laying.
“Truly you deserve to be killed and eaten. Justice would even call for terror to
enter you before your doom. But redemption is a more powerful law than revenge.”
Then Havohej did something Rodney did not expect. He rose and walked with huge
cat strides to the loose rock where the landslide had occurred. He looked at the
stones piled there and then he crouched and released a massive roar 10 times
more earth shattering than the first one. Rodney just put his head between his
paws and whimpered at the cat’s terrible anger. But instead of leaping to the
pit to destroy the tiny coyote, something else happened. A huge stone was
loosened by the roar of the Great Tiger. It teetered in place and then suddenly,
it toppled into the pit giving Rodney a perfect stepping stone to escape.
Havohej returned to where he had been laying and turned his back on Rodney and
laid his head down showing that he was not watching.
Quick as he could climb Rodney was up and out of the pit. He stood at the top of
the incline looking down at the mysterious beast. He started to run away and
join the hunt for he was very hungry but something stopped him and he went back.
He began down the incline toward the huge cat and then he sat in front of
Havohej straight up, ears perked at stared at the wide face of the sleeping
Tiger. Finally one eye of the cat opened and he said “What is it you want little
coyote?”
“Why?” Rodney asked. It was all that needed to be said. Hovohej raised his
powerful regal head and looked into the eyes of the little beast and then he
spoke.
“Hunting is noble and to be done with dignity and grace. You have heard the law
of the jungle is survival of the fittest. That is incorrect. The law of the
jungle is mercy. It is that way because the law of the creator of all life is
mercy. He gives mercy to us, his creation and to his chief creation, mankind
when he sent his son to redeem this fallen place. So too, I gave mercy to you
and you give mercy to others. And every act of mercy you give will be as though
you are the servant of the most high himself. Go little coyote and live in
mercy, live in peace and live in the grace of your creator. Do this and you will
never go hungry.”
With that, Havohej stood and leapt seemingly straight up and disappeared into
the jungle. At that moment, he knew that the Great Tiger did not come to destroy
Rodney. He came to teach him, about his creator and his son who died even for a
lowly coyote. He came to teach him how to live in the image of that great
creator. Instead of death, Havohej gave life and instead of becoming a meal,
Rodney became a beloved member of the jungle society not because of his great
skill at the hunt but because of his great mercy.