The staff Christmas party was held at Safari Waters through the generous invitation of one of the residents. Several of the staff team had never been and were intrigued by the wild animals that lived on the property. After the party, a group of us went searching for the exotics. I was in the front seat and was narrating the trip.
I kept calling out things that I was seeing. Most of them were fakes. There were several Bigfoot statues - no one was confused when I pointed them out. There, however, were many wooden and metal zebra statues. I kept pointing them out and causing more confusion. "Look there is a zebra," I said, but I was pointing to the obvious metal statue. So I was encouraged to add more detail to my reporting. We saw white-tailed deer, but they were all pure white-painted plywood deer.
After a bit of searching, we found the real things: Axis Deer, Pere David's Deer, and Fallow Deer. We could not find the zebra. We were headed to the exit when someone saw something through the trees. We turned down a road. When we got closer we could see there were several horse statues on the top of a mailbox, more fakes. We went just a little further to find a place to turn around and suddenly zebra were covering the street. We were pumped. It was like we found gold in a stream. There were lots of oohs and aahs.
I imagine over time the excitement diminishes, but they still thrill me. I took lots of pictures. One of the zebras was nibbling green shoots growing out of a yucca plant. It had to be difficult to get to the sweet tender growth. It looked like the prickly leaves kept sticking him in the nose. Then he, I assumed it was a 'he' due to his silly behavior, started coming close. He reached up and nibbled an artificial wreath on a mailbox. Neither the red ribbon nor the plastic foliage was going to provide any nourishment. After three or four tastes he gave up and moved on.
Just around the corner, we had seen hay provided for the herd. All they had to do was go there. Instead, they were looking for substitutes that could not satisfy. They were nibbling in the thorns. Life is like that. We accept the artificial when God offers us reality. We accept the transitory when God offers us substance. We go the hard way when God offers us the way of love. All we have to do is feed on what God has provided.
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