Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: BLIND (06/03/21)
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TITLE: Bracken Cave | Previous Challenge Entry
By Corinne Smelker
06/10/21 -
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“Over the next four hours millions of Mexican free-tailed bats will stream out of the mouth of this cave in what looks like a choreographed ballet,” the tour guide said. “I’m sure you’ve all heard the term ‘blind as a bat’, but that’s not true of most bats, and these little ones are no exception. They can see, but their eyes are so sensitive they choose to come out at dusk to hunt. Instead they use something called echolocation…”
As he explained echolocation I tuned him out a bit. I’d read up on the phenomenon and how these specific bats emit a high-pitched signal and navigate based on its reflected sound. Instead I watched the dance between prey and predator at the opening of the cave. Experienced bats flitted in and out of the cave’s mouth, the front guard as it were, testing the air before emitting the ‘all clear’ signal. Even so, a couple were taken down by a hawk.
“…and not only do the bats reflect the sound off objects, they reflect it off each other. This cave is a key maternity site, the largest in the world. Millions of mothers give birth and rear their babies here. When the babies fly out with their mother they use echolocation to keep track of each other. Without it the babies would be…I have to say it, blind as bats!”
We groan-laughed at the weak joke, but soon enough our attention was drawn once more to the grotto’s mouth. The front-guard was like the orchestra warming up for the big event as the high-pitched hum increased in volume and intensity. Suddenly, and by some invisible cue hundreds, no thousands of tiny bats streamed out of the cavern’s aperture. With so many in the air the noise of their echolocation was audible to our ears. “Each baby bat out with its mother knows her voice,” our guide said. “If they lose each other the baby can be in danger.”
For over an hour I sat enthralled as literally millions of bats pirouetted, twirled, and flitted from the cave, off to kill the moths, mosquitoes, and other bugs. I’d even seen them in my part of town, over 30 miles away.
Later, as I used my phone’s flashlight to walk back to my car, stumbling over the rutted track and being mindful of the snakes that still hunted their unwary quarry, I thought perhaps being as blind as a bat wouldn’t be too bad as long as I could echolocate!
But I do echolocate, I thought. Not in the sense of bats, but as a follower of Jesus shouldn’t I be constantly sending out a ‘bat signal’ to hear what God is saying? Doesn’t He say that He will tell us things to come?* And shouldn’t I know His voice, even among all the other things that clamour for my attention?+
As I reached my car I took one last look back at the cave. Darkness shrouded it and in the distance I could still hear the rustling of thousands of wings, and the small, shrill cry of millions of bats working together in harmony, using their strength to combat their near-blindness.
*John 16:13
+John 10:27
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