A SKATING ELEPHANT?

The other day my husband and I were reminiscing about funny things that happened when we were younger.  So, sit back and relax as I invite you into my parents’ kitchen in Columbus, Ohio.

My husband and I lived in Canada at the time, but several times a year I would fly back to visit my folks in Ohio.   It was an average morning and we were just enjoying sitting at their kitchen table with each other.

For some reason, my dad went outside, probably to take out some trash or have a tour of his tomato garden.  He was gone longer than expected.

My mom and I just continued chatting when all of a sudden, my dad came bursting through the front door with an “incredible announcement.”

Come out and look!   You won’t believe what I just saw.  My dad was quite a jokester, but I agreed to join his invitational adventure.

As I proceeded from the kitchen into the living room and heading towards the front door, I asked him, “What did you see that was so incredible?”

He kept repeating, “it’s amazing.”   There’s a skating elephant in that big semi-truck parked across the street.   By now, I thought my dad was losing it.  He was creative and all, but I thought he must be taking this story far beyond the facts.

Yes, I see the huge semi-truck but couldn’t connect an elephant to this huge carrier parked just across the street from their home.  Their home was very close to the interstate entrance, so access to a service station was a fairly easy maneuver for trucks wishing to refuel.

By now I had stepped off the front porch and glanced to the right to get a more detailed look at the printing on the side of the gigantic semi-trailer.  Yes, I saw the huge semi-truck, but couldn’t make a connection.

My dad was acting like a six-year-old little boy at this juncture.  He crossed the street to get a closer focus on the sign.   Ordinarily a person wouldn’t even need a pair of glasses to see the huge words colorfully displayed on the truck.

TARRA – THE SKATING ELEPHANT

We both just stood there star-crazed and in total unbelief.  A few minutes elapsed, and then the driver appeared with a huge bucket of water.   He may have been thirsty himself, but this bucket was beyond large….it was HUGE.

My dad couldn’t get the words out of his mouth fast enough, “Is there really an elephant in your semi?”   Yep, that’s right sir.

We both looked at each other in disbelief and immediately surveyed the “sign….” which portrayed her “talent” and skill.   My dad asked, “Can the elephant really skate?   His reply was in the affirmative.

By now we both must have looked like two six-year-olds that just got a free ice cream cone from the ice cream guy who used to ride a bike with a freezer in the front.  Do you remember that from your childhood?  If not, it was before your time. 

But in the Summer, a guy would ride throughout the neighborhood with a small portable freezer at the front of this bicycle, selling various forms of popsicles or ice cream bars.  The song “Music Box Dancer” would play over and over and over attracting every young child in their neighbourhood.

Well, back to the elephant story.  The driver told us just a little about this huge elephant and how she was trained to skate.  She’s actually known around the world, and this semi-truck was delivering her to her next “theatrical” event.

It has been many years since this took place, and I think we only saw part of her legs standing in the “air conditioned” carrier accommodating this priceless princess elephant.

By now, my mother was fixed on the porch absorbing all this from a distance.   As we walked away from the truck, we just shook our heads in unbelief.

We shared our “eye witness account” with my mom; and she could tell by our expressive animation and the sign on the semi-truck that it was all for real.

Here’s a clip from the internet about this famous elephant:

Tarra, the world’s only roller-skating elephant.  Soon after moving to Ojai, California, Tarra became the world’s only roller-skating elephant.  Her celebrity took her around the world, always with her owner Carol, and her family in tow. 

Tarra is a wild-caught Burmese elephant.  She was three months old when an exotic animal broker sold her to an animal collector in California, who put her on public display at his tire store.

Cara and Tarra met in 1974 when Tarra was not even a year old and Carol was a 20-year-old college student studying exotic animal training and management at Moorpark College in southern California.

Carol immediately became Tarra’s volunteer caregiver and, eventually, her legal guardian.”

Coming back to reality, as I thought about this true-life event, I got to thinking about the “impossibility” that my dad was telling me about.

It became clear as I pondered this scenario, how many times have I read in the Bible about how God is a God of the impossible?  How many times have I doubted his character of goodness, holiness, love, mercy, forgiveness, power and majesty?

Let me bring you to the incredible verse in Luke 1:37

“For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Luke 1:37

and

“Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Matthew 19:26

This event brought me back to the Scriptural truth about the God I serve.  I doubted my dad’s announcement regarding this “impossible scene” in front of their home.   It was possible and it was true.  Now I need to transfer this trust to my heavenly Father – that He has plans for my life and yours that would dwarf ours, if we would just believe Him.

There is no task, no situation, no problem, no challenge that is impossible for our God to address.  He is the God of what, in human terms, is impossible, but….not for Him, and not by Him.

I love the phrase that Dr. Tony Evans often shares in his sermons on the broadcast called:  The Urban Alternative (which you can google and listen to on your cell phone).  His phrase is this:

FAITH IS ACTING LIKE GOD IS TELLING THE TRUTH!

Photos of Tarra….in action!

Enjoy!