Today I had the priviledge of meeting my friend's grandparents from Africa. They are so joyful, so full of Christ's love. If I knew their language I would have sat with them for hours, wanting to know anything and everything. Luckily, I got my friend to agree to ask his granfather to tell a story and he would translate. I was so pumped- you always read in books about wise village elders telling stories to the younger ones, and now I would get to experience it!
He started telling a story about two lions, a male and female. They were driving to go visit a priest friend of theirs and came across the lions laying in the middle of the road. The grandfather's friend wanted to shoot them, but the grandfather had a feeling that this was a bad idea and persuaded his friend to just sit and wait. After some hours, the lions finally got up and walked away, and they could continue driving. When they got to the priest's house and told him the story, he was relieved to hear that they had not shot the lions.
The priest told them that if you ever come across a pair of lions, tigers, or other large animals, you should never shoot the male. If you do, the female will attack you out of loyalty. However, if you shoot the female, the male will most likely run away and find another female to mate with. My friend's grandfather started describing the beauty of a woman's heart, how we are loyal and protective and will always take care of our loved ones. He told the two boys sitting in the room to always love and cherish their future spouses, to be grateful to them for their love and not be like the male lion. It was so cool to me that a story about two lions could end up being a beautiful reflection on the vocation of man and woman. I definitely grew in my appreciation today of the way God made my heart!
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