Koala Bears
“Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.” [Matthew 25:1-5]
The Australian koala bear certainly looks like a round, furry teddy bear, but the koala is actually a pouched marsupial related more to the kangaroo and the wombat; it really has no close relatives. Today these quiet and cute marsupials are Australia’s premier icon, but until the late 1920s koalas were nearly hunted to extinction for their skin, with as many as 500,000 a month being exported. Thankfully, they are now protected and loved as one of Australia’s most unique animals.
You might say koalas are “all thumbs” because each koala foot has three toes and two thumbs, helping it climb and cling to branches. The koala is also unique from other marsupials because its pouch opens at the bottom rather than the top. The young are born small, blind, and hairless. The baby crawls to its mother’s pouch, where it suckles and grows for six months. Then the young koala climbs out onto its mother’s back and she teaches it how to feed.
The koala spends almost all its time in eucalyptus trees and is an amazingly fussy eater. Of the more than 600 species of eucalyptus in Australia, it will only eat from 50. And it will pick through 20 leaves for every one it decides is good enough to eat. The eucalyptus leaves contain strong-smelling oils that act as a bug repellent, keeping the animal free from parasites. Unfortunately, they also make the koala smell like very strong cough syrup!
Because the eucalyptus is not very nutritious, adult koalas have to eat about 2.5 pounds a day, and they spend most of the day sleeping in the fork of a tree to conserve energy. In fact, a koala spends up to 18 hours a day – or three quarters of its life – asleep.
Did you know that Jesus warns that just before His coming most of the churches will be sleeping, due in part to bad nutrition? Friends, we need to feast on the Bread that came down from heaven. The Bible says, “If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever” (John 6:51). Now that’s good nutrition!
