THE GORILLA

Ken and I liked going to the zoo. The last time we went, we were disgusted with how much it cost to park and that was the end of it. But we enjoyed our visits to see the animals throughout the years and took some awesome photos. One of my favorites is one that Ken took. He was standing right above a huge hippo, taking shots, camera ready, when that old hippo decided to yawn. Ken was right there at the right time! What an incredible photo!

It was on that zoo excursion that we got to talking to the zookeeper as we watched a mother gorilla tending her little baby. It was something I'll never forget. The zookeeper told us what I view an amazing story.

Up until about a week before, that mother gorilla tenderly feeding and caressing her cute little baby would have nothing to do with her offspring. They tried everything to stir up the maternal instincts, but to no avail. The little gorilla seemed doomed to die.

One last idea. Someone produced a video of a female gorilla in the jungle taking care of her baby. That footage was express mailed to the zoo and audio/visual arrangements were made to play it on a fairly good sized screen. Would it work, everyone wondered?

It did not take long to find out. The gorilla in captivity picked up on the mothering process within a day. Soon she was taking care of her little one just like the one in the movie.

When I heard that story, it resulted in a lot of thoughts having to do with living and growing and parenting, etc. But the point is that from the start, children do not have a wholesome model in their parents. Now, I must quickly add that some do; but even marriages that seem, by today's standards, to be okay, are often a far cry from what God had in mind. So children, from infancy, grow up with parents who operate outside their God-given roles, who live one way at home and another at church or in public, who either don't like each other or don't know how to show that they do, and who evidence that a hundred other things are more important and more dear than their spouse.

How can we expect anything more than mimicry of such behavior? And do we not understand that basically, society and character do not, by themselves, tend to get better with time, but instead depreciate. Kids early on need to see it acted out, this thing called quality marriage. If they do not, they will have no idea how to pull it off either.

WHAT'S THE ANSWER?

I think that churches need to make a big deal out of healthy marriages. Christian couples celebrating any anniversary whatsoever should be honored before the congregation. At that same occasion, the body of the church needs to stand to their feet and pray corporately for that marriage. Children, all the way up, should be taught appropriately, according to their age, what a godly relationship is. We must not be afraid to speak out with power what God has clearly shown as important in marriage. We must not fudge on it either. Kids who come from difficult homes need to have significant opportunity to observe strong Christian families...maybe a good reason for mixed-age small groups.

There's more, but the point is this: younger gorillas need to get a chance to see how it is done right!