The Elephant Who Flew

Once there was a baby elephant who wanted to fly All of his friends thought he was coloring too far outside the lines He had good friends so they didn’t mock or ostracize him But he could tell they worried about him His family was supportive but pointed out the impracticality of an elephant ever flying a plane Or glider Let alone a helicopter The design specifications alone…. A rocket ship? Surely not. Weight is everything when it comes to reaching orbital escape velocity Time passed and the little elephant grew up as most of us do. He had the usual amount of luck, good and bad. He was average at sports, which slightly disappointed his Mother as she had won many national swimming events in her younger days, shortly before meeting her husband. The young elephant tried to like swimming, but never did. And he HATED the early morning practices that were mandatory for the swim team. Im the coming years his low level guilt was assuaged when his youngest sister became an international diving star. He excelled at school, loving all classes, but especially science. Biology, chemistry, physics- he loved them all. He read academic journals for fun as he lay on the ground under the sparse shade of his favorite acacia tree. Many weekend hours passed by as he devoured journal after journal of the latest scientific research, pausing only to think things over as he gently fanned his ears during the late afternoon heat. And so years passed. The elephant hardly noticed the various young ladies that expressed interest in him- his passion was not the pleasant curve of a leg but rather the impossible beauty of a birds arc through the dusty gleam of the African dusk. If God allowed one of his creations to break free of the earths pull then why not all? Why not him?!! And God heard his anguished and beseeching prayer for the beauty of flight. And God answered the not quite as young elephant and granted him a minor revelation The epiphany struck with the same shocking intensity as a late summer storm on the African veld. Between one step and the next he was struck down, literally falling to his knees as the earth and the cosmos spun about as physically disoriented by the impossible beauty of and potential of Gods minor revelation unfolded within his brain. Not only was flight possible, but in the right space time orientation- it couldn’t be avoided!! His parents were very worried when they were taken to him, crying breathlessly in the middle of the path close to the outskirts of town. He couldn’t explain, bereft of air to speak, his body wracked by sobs- consumed by the glory that was now possible in the future. His parents finally had to carry him home where lay abed for a week. Revelation always has a cost. Our corporeal being is not meant for the touch of the divine, no matter how lightly the Lord caresses our poor mortal brain. When the young elephant awoke from his week of physical incapacity he realized that he had gone mute. His thoughts were as quick as ever, his hearing and sense of smell as keen, but speech had deserted him. He didn’t care. His passion was now a monomania, flight his all consuming ambition. Speech was a sacrifice he gladly laid upon the altar of his dream. And then……