Small as an Elephant: Hope

In Jack’s journey to find his mom he encountered a lot of different people. The two people that stuck out to me the most were a bartender and a man named big Jack. I honestly believe that Jesus puts people in our lives that sometimes meet our temporary needs. Now Jesus is the only one who can satisfy our needs… I go that! But when it came to an 11-year-old with a broken pinky Jesus was like “Yo big Jack! You got this one?”

So little Jack broke his pinky while trying to steal empty soda bottles for money. He was in a lot of pain and ended up at a bar. This is where he met the bartender and big Jack, they offered ice for his finger and big Jack put a splint in his pinky.

This entire scenario cracked me up! These two men immediately helped Jack out-no questions asked. They didn’t ignore him or even acknowledge humor or concern in the fact that an 11-year-old boy was sitting at a bar!

Just imagine this with me. Two men helping a young boy make a splint for his broken pinky in a bar… It’s wonderful! It makes me so ecstatically happy when I see compassion and random acts of kindness toward strangers. The sad part is, in real life these situations are unique and rare. I can only count a few times in my entire life where I witnessed sincere kindness between strangers. If Christians are supposed to walk like Jesus shouldn’t we as a nation be witnessing these encounters more often?

Early on in Jack’s journey he steals a plastic elephant from a store. He loved elephants and actually he was obsessed with them! It was his thing! In Jack’s mind this tiny plastic elephant that he later named Mudo gave him hope.

Hope that he would see his mom again

Hope that every thing would be okay.

It’s crazy that something as small as an elephant could give a young boy hope.

You see in my heart Jesus is my elephant-He gives me hope when I need it most and shines His light through other people in my life to remind me of His enduring promise.

So after a while Jack found out that his mom was out of the country and the hope of actually finding her faded. No worries though, Jack came up with a new goal. He would go visit the only living elephant in Maine…her name was Lydia. If you couldn’t tell by the title Jack loved elephants and the book itself is filled with cute facts about elephants.

At the very end of the book big Jack showed up again in Jack’s life and once again he fulfilled exactly what little Jack needed. Big Jack took Jack to see Lydia the elephant and PLOT TWIST Jack’s grandma waited at the park with Lydia for a week because she knew that her grandson would want more than anything to see Lydia.

Literally my heart was aching at the end of this book in utter happiness! The encounter between Lydia and Jack is so beautiful and after what this poor boy had been through their meeting was just perfect. They played together and Jack lay down on his belly face-to-face with Lydia. Then Lydia gently raised her trunk and she tenderly grazed his little face. In the end Jack cupped his hands around the tip of her trunk and blew air into it.

Jack finally saw Lydia the elephant and his mom would finally get help while he lived with his sweet grandmother. Every thing fell into place and Jack knew he was going to be all right.

In the book Jack’s goal went from finding his mother to finding his new life. After reading I could not help but wonder what my goal was…

In everyone’s life a lot of things are uncertain, but one thing I’m sure of is my end goal.

My end goal is to see Jesus’ face for the first time in Heaven and maybe have a similar encounter that Jack did with Lydia the elephant. Perhaps Jesus will graze His loving hand across my face and in that moment I will know that every thing is going to be okay and that I am Jesus’ child finally home with my Father. 

“He remembered what he’d heard about blowing into an elephant’s trunk- how the elephant would never forget you”.