Elephants and mice

Sometimes its important to speak up

I am working my way through the book of Galatians at the moment and I came across the moment when Paul has to step up to disagree with Peter.

Peter was the most significant personality in the New Testament Church but he had started to distance himself from people who weren’t Jews to keep the powerful people happy. (You will find the story in Galatians 2:11-21)

It would have taken a fair bit of courage for Paul to speak up on behalf of the Gentiles who would have been the “low status” members of the Christian church.

Sometimes those who are higher status can damage those who are lower status without even meaning to.. they just don’t see them clearly through all that they are trying to manage.

That process though, holds up the chance for people to move to real fellowship – where everybody’s voice is valued and understood, whether or not people actually agree.

It reminded me of a story somebody told me that helped to illustrate what happens in many groups on their way to community:

The Family

There was once a group of three elephants who were orphans and felt very alone.

One day they came across a group of  ten mice who were also orphans and also felt very alone.

One of the elephants had an idea. “I know, lets become a family”, he said.

Adventures are much better when you are in a family.

So they became a family, and it felt so good so that they had a party.

After the celebrations had died down one of the elephants said to another elephant, “Well I guess we had better work out which way we are going to go”.

“Yes, the other elephant said, I wonder about going north but what do you think?”

Thinking he was talking to them, the mice started giving their opinion. You see they had been North and knew there was nothing there to eat.

Whether it was because they were too small, or because he was focussed on something else, the other elephant began to talk right over the top of the little mice. “Hmm yes, I think North sounds good. Lets go North”.

The mice felt sad because they were ignored, but because this was their family they said nothing.

“Right North it is”, the elephants said.

As one of the big elephants stood up, he trod on the tail of one of the little albino mice.

“Ow” the mouse said, and all the other mice rushed to check he was o.k., because they all knew that having your tail trodden on really hurts.

Unfortunately because the elephant was so big and had his eyes somewhere else, he didn’t even notice what he had done.

The mice were upset because now they felt unsafe, but because this was their family they said nothing.

After a long walk for the mice (which was really only a short walk for the elephants) one of the mice said to the elephant who was up the front “Can we please rest? We are so tired!”

The elephant replied, “Now, Now little mouse, lets not be lazy.We have only walked barely a few kilometres. Why I remember when I was your age walking twice as far just to get to school”.

The mice felt sad because the elephants didn’t understand how difficult the journey was for them, but they said nothing because this was their family.

Then about an hour later, a horrible tragedy struck the family.

One of the elephants thought he saw an ant. Elephants are scared of ants, so he jumped high into the air. Unfortunately his rear left foot came crushing down on one of the little mice.

The mouse was killed.

The big elephant though, was so upset at the trauma of seeing an ant that he didn’t notice what happened.

That was the last straw. The mice, now deeply saddened and angry started to talk among themselves.

Together, the mice  ran in front of the elephants and with one voice (so the elephants would be sure to hear) said:

“Our family has to change. Look at what you have done to our brother. From now on in our family everybody will be listened to and we will work out where we are going together”.

The elephants were stunned.

They hadn’t meant to hurt anyone and they were deeply grieved when they saw the crumpled little body.

Immediately the whole family sat down and grieved their lost brother.

Eventually they began to talk. They discussed their likes and dislikes, their hopes and fears, their dreams for the future.

They discussed where together they should go.

And eventually they went.

West.

They discovered plentiful food for the whole family and had many more adventures together.