Almost 20 years ago, I was in Kenya with some other volunteers to help out with a youth camp. Meeting brethren on the other side of the world and seeing firsthand that God’s redemptive work is not limited to my congregation or even my country was an experience I don’t think I can ever forget.

While we there, we also had the incredible opportunity to go on a two-day safari, spending one night in a hotel inside the park itself. I don’t think I’ll forget that, either.

When we first drove into the park, I remember being absolutely blown away by what I was seeing:

Zebra.

Real-life zebra. Everywhere. Standing, walking, running. Whole groups of them, milling around, just existing like they weren’t some of the most visually striking creatures God had ever created.

It was incredible.

We saw plenty of other incredible animals, too—flamingos and lions and cheetahs and giraffe and rhinos and monkeys and water buffalo, all roaming about—and constantly, everywhere we seemed to look, more zebra.

As we drove out of the park on the second day, I remember thinking to myself, Ugh, more zebra. Where are the cool animals?

And then I remember thinking what an absolutely absurd thought that was. Hadn’t these same animals filled me with wonder just yesterday? In the span of 24 hours, I’d gone from amazed to unimpressed. Why?

The zebras hadn’t changed—but my expectations had. I was on the lookout for novel and rare things, and the zebra had quickly proven themselves to be just the opposite. They were all around me, and in some way, that made them boring.

(It feels ridiculous to even type that out. When had I ever in my life—when would I ever again in my life—be this close to this many of them? How could I have been bored of that? And yet I was.)

* * *

How long has it been since you started reading God’s word? And I mean really reading it, paying attention to it, and coming to appreciate it for the beautiful treasure that it is.

Has it ever started to feel like a zebra to you?

Living the Christian life means living with God’s word stored up in our hearts (Psalm 119:11, ESV), which means taking it with us everywhere—when we walk by the way, when we lie down, and when we rise up, binding it onto our arms and our foreheads and the doorposts of our house (Deuteronomy 6:7-8).

Everywhere we look, more zebra.

And when something is everywhere, all the time, it can be easy to stop noticing it altogether—or to start seeing it as something dull and boring. It can be easy to start wanting something new or novel or rare. We can be surrounded by food from heaven and find ourselves complaining that “our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!” (Numbers 11:6).

Absurd. Ridiculous. And yet…

* * *

I think the solution is coming to appreciate that what God has given us is something with a bottom we can never dive deep enough to reach. The word we have the privilege to store up like a treasure in our hearts is something that continually changes and transforms us.

If we let it.

If we don’t treat it as some shallow, surface level thing that will always look the same, always feel the same, never offer up any deeper truths or profounder insights. Because if that’s all it is to us, then it may as well be a zebra—interesting to look at for a while, but ultimately more of the exact same thing over and over again. Easy to stop caring about. Easy to forget about.

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

(James 1:22-26)

Do the word. Don’t just hear it. Don’t just look at it. Make it an increasing part of who you are. Everything we read and learn should come with questions:

• What does this tell me about how God wants me to live?
• What in my life needs to change for that to be true?
• What’s the first small step I can take today to bridge the gap between what is and what should be?

When we allow ourselves to be changed by what we’re reading—when we actively make the effort to facilitate that change—we can understand what David meant when he wrote,

The precepts of the LORD are right,
making the heart glad;
the command of the LORD is radiant,
making the eyes light up.
The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever;
the ordinances of the LORD are reliable
and altogether righteous.
They are more desirable than gold—
than an abundance of pure gold;
and sweeter than honey dripping from a honeycomb.
In addition, your servant is warned by them,
and in keeping them there is an abundant reward.

(Psalm 19:8-11, CSB)

Don’t let God’s word be a zebra. It’s meant to be so much more than that.