This elephant thing

Some may already know this story. Read it again-- or skip over this post.

In some parts of the world, I am told, elephants can be used and trained to assist unwary travellers who wind up unintentionally "ditched." For me, spiritually, this is kind of like that.

In a certain class, a certain professor offered this beautiful image of how prayer "works":

The answers to our prayers, said this professor, are like elephants. And God, being the very funny God that he is, keeps the elephants in the attic. (Silly, silly God.)

When we pray, we are sitting in the living room, and our prayers are toothpicks. Each prayer we lift is a poke at the ceiling, poking into the attic. Poke, poke, poke as we persist in prayer. And with each poke, the ceiling that separates us from the elephants becomes thinner . . . and thinner . . . until plop! A beautiful, perfect elephant lands right in our laps!

Sometimes it is exactly the elephant we imagined and prayed for. But sometimes-- it's a beautiful, unexpectedly colorful elephant, like Elmer.

Sometimes, it just seems we can hardly poke another poke. The box of toothpicks feels nearly empty. That is when we come together as Family and persist.

And then, as we pray and poke together with friends, a second elephant sometimes breaks free at the same time!

Many toothpicks, many prayers-- many elephants.

So the next time you get a big sandwich at the deli, held together by a fancy, frilly toothpick-- stop and think. That toothpick could be the prayer that someone has been waiting for. Go ahead-- poke.

It may begin with a single elephant. But I understand they travel in herds.