A gorilla at the zoo
Can you see the faint reflection of the little boy in the glass looking at the gorilla in captivity?
As a child I never cared much for the zoo I have always felt it was a place where animals were in cages longing to run in their natural habitat so many lifetimes ago. As an adult I realize how important it is for zoos to exist in many ways. Zoos educate people about the animals and allow children to feel connected to them. They also help with research to keep animals from becoming extinct. The zoo workers in our zoo love those animals and care for them as though they were their own children. However, when I looked into the eyes of this gorilla my heart was saddened. Of course he is treated well, fed well, has other gorillas to play with and a habitat very similar to the wild but he will never be free. Instead he is on display for thousands of people to look at and watch daily. To be caged like that makes me wonder if he has memories of where he came from or if he was born into captivity. If he yearns without full knowledge of it to be free to swing from real trees not fake ones and to exist in the wild.
As adults we all have moments when we feel like that gorilla caged and on display; when we feel the weight of the world on our shoulders, the job, the bills, the children, all or our responsibilities, when we have to perform for work or keep on a happy face for our children when we are falling apart inside. The majority of us don’t want the freedom to be released from our lives, many of us have aspired to be where we are today, and we just want that feeling of relief or lack of stress so we can enjoy it more. We do want to feel that the walls are not closing in and that the boundaries for our existence are not right in front of us.
We are all caged to a certain extent living as a human but one day we pray to be completely free in God’s eternal life for us, where no stress, pain, bills, jobs or responsibilities will exist, only blissful love and completion of our souls. When we reach that eternity we will be free like the gorilla in the wild living where God intended for him to live and where God wants us as well.
