1. A Big Secret
A true story told by our dad, ‘Pops’ during lockdown.
A long time ago when Pops left school he got a job looking after the animals in a zoo.. all kinds of animals. Kids, to make this not boring I will need your help you are going to have to draw some pictures for me……..
Well there were all kinds of animals; sea lions that barked, lazy zebras that would never take off their pajamas’, ostriches that looked like upside-down broom sticks, vultures that always looked at me as if I was their lunch, and many more. I may tell you some other stories about some of them another time.
But this story is about a baby elephant called ‘Baby Elephant’ or BE for short. My job was to feed him 5 times a day with warm milk and rice which I put in a milk bottle and then pushed into his mouth.
We became good friends , as soon as I came into his stable, he would run up to me and reach out his little trunk like an arm and shake my hand but I had to be careful because although he was small he could still very easily push me over.
My boss said I must feed him bananas as well as milk and rice, he said I must peel them before I gave them to him. But I discovered if I put a banana on the floor BE learnt if he squashed the end of the banana just right then the banana would shoot out of its skin, well sometimes!
This became one of our secrets, it had to be a secret because for every banana that he shot out there would be lots that would become a squashy mess on the floor and myboss wouldn’t like that very much.
But our best secret of all was I learnt if I pulled BE’s tail he would always walk forward.
Well this little secret one day became very important.
My boss was being paid by a comedian to take an elephant down to London airport so she could be filmed pulling an elephant through passport control like you pull a suitcase (I know stupid eh).
Now as you know Jesus made not only elephants but ostriches, vultures, all the animals and the reason He made so many is because He wanted to show us things about Himself.
One of the things I was learning was if I spent time with Jesus like I spent time with BE He would start showing me things about Heaven and Earth about God and man and best of all, about Himself .
When I began to spend time alone with Jesus, sometimes I thought my heart would burst with His loveliness.
Back to my story, the big truck pulled up Saturday morning to take Baby Elephant and me down to London but my elephant would not get into his box on the truck! My boss, the driver and the driver’s mate were pushing him as hard as they could but he would not budge. The boss didn’t ask me to helpbecause bosses always know best don’t they? If they couldn’t get him in soon they were going to be too late, so my boss grudgingly asked if I could help. ‘Sure’ I said, I went up to BE and pretended to whisper something to him while at the same time giving a little pull on his tail and like magic he went straight into his box. All the men were amazed, I just smiled.
We got down to London airport, the famous comedian was waiting with the cameras and film crew. “Oh, David we will take it from here” the boss said but of course BE wouldn’t move. “Can I help “I said,” no you are too scruffy for the television” said the boss. “He will be fine “said the comedian “although he looks scruffy it seems the elephant likes him; it will make good TV”.
So, pretending to whisper in my elephant’s ear and at the same time without anybody noticing I pulled BE’s tail, off he went, and scruffy Pops went through London airport on the telly. “What a remarkable young man” they said “a boy that can talk to elephants” , because nobody knew our secret except BE and me.
So, next time you need to take an elephant for a walk remember my secret.
And if you want to know Jesus better and better just spend more and more time with Him.
