Zoo

This last week I went with my son's class to the zoo. In order to do this I had to take off from work, and my son was grateful for my sacrifice. What he did not know was that the OKC zoo is one of my favorite places, so it was no sacrifice for me at all.

We got to visit the Great EscApe with its gorillas and chimps, the Cat Forest with its lions and tigers and the newly completed Oklahoma Trails which has a collection of animals native and formerly native to Oklahoma including bears, oh my. All of the boys in my sons group were well behaved and we had ourselves a great time.

One thing that I thought was interesting was when my son decided that he needed a souvenir. He went into one of the many gift shops and picked out several post cards and a grab bag surprise. It cost 3.50 and was filled with who knows what. My son likes surprises so he was excited about opening it up.

When he did, he found a stuffed puffer fish, a plastic telescope and a magnifying glass. He was overjoyed. He made me proud with the way that he shared all his newfound wealth with all of his classmates. In fact, everytime we would get to a new cage the boys would take turns looking at the animal with the plastic telescope.

Eventually I got a turn. Actually, I was excited about looking at the Bontebok with the little telescope because the antelope was quite a ways off. I expected to be able to count his eyelashes by the way the boys kept clamoring for their turn with the telescope. When I got my turn I was very disappointed. Not only could I not count the eyelashes, but I couldn't even see it's eyes. This little telescope had almost no magnification. All it did was provide a peep hole that was filled only with the Bonteboks profile.

A few days later I was thinking about "quiet times." I hate that word, "quiet time." I am not sure why but I have always thought about how my best "quiet times" are not very quiet. I am yelling or crying or talking or muttering or whatever, but I am rarely quiet. Oh, I know I am supposed to be listening to what he has to say to me, and I do a lot of the time. In fact, maybe that is what happened here.

I was thinking about how I don't like the term "quiet time" and I began remembering the little telescope story. You see, I had always thought of those times with God as times when He was very close to me. I realized that He was actually never "closer" to me. He is always there if I just take the time to notice. I then realized that quiet times are not about closer, they are about getting rid of all the background clutter, about taking out all the distractions and focusing only on Him. So if I say I need to have my "Little Plastic Telescope Time," hopefully you will understand.