Monday, August 22, 2005

ZOO DO'S

When’s the last time you went to the zoo? I had forgotten what a kick it is to hang out with those 20,000 extra-special creatures.

Sunday’s trip included a little voyeurism, as Mr. and Mrs. Ostrich took a fully-immersed bath together in front of our eyes. There was danger, as an egret tried to peck a lady’s toes from under a fence. There was discovery, big and small: I saw a pipefish for the first time – an eentsy weentsy orange shoestring of a fish. A second later, walking in the tube underneath the big sharks, I got a good look at all the fins they have. They have so many fins, and each for a different purpose!

But the best thing was coming around the corner in the gorilla house, and encountering a grandfatherly zookeeper in an easy chair with a tiny gorilla baby on his lap, wearing a diaper. The gorilla baby, not the zookeeper! The man was exercising the little one’s arms, and cuddling him, and playing with him, apparently to get him used to human touch. Right outside, with one huge arm up on the glass, waiting for this session to be over, was the gorilla mama. She had a look on her face that I’ve seen before: on human moms, the first time they drop their child off at day care.

That’s why I really love the zoo: everything is all so familiar!

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Prayer request: What a wonderful community resource we have in the Henry Doorly Zoo. Lord, thank You for all the people through the generations who have built it up and kept it going and growing so well. It’s a model of good stewardship and honor for Your creation. Grant it success, for all creatures great and small. (Job 5:22).

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