Dear Zoo - Rod Campbell

This story is fiction at it's most simple and effective. It was beloved so much by one of my children that it was immortalised in cake form for a 1st birthday.

Here's what goes down...

A child wants a pet so writes to the local zoo and asks them to send one. Every time they send a pet it's not right and has to be returned and exchanged until finally the right pet arrives.

It's one for animal lovers everywhere, and for parents keen to discourage pet keeping.

So what does it teach us about ourselves? Here's the fundamental human truth - we pursue satisfaction in the wrong place. 

While we could get into the wisdom of letting a child have free-reign in choosing a pet (a lion is presented at one point and, much to the relief of the off page parents I imagine, is sent back as it's deemed "too scary". Too right.) The quest for just the right thing that will satisfy is in us all. We crave 'something'. A thing that will fill a hole in our lives that we just know will be instantly better the moment we get that 'something'. But here's the rub, it doesn't. And so we decide that thing wasn't the thing and continue in our quest.

One of my children once had a massive meltdown at lunchtime because they

wanted

a banana. Despite my best efforts at being one of those glidey mothers who is unphased by her child's "moment of self awareness and expression", nothing I did could satisfy this desire. There was screaming, fist beating, time spent rolling round the floor (I refuse to commit as to which of us was doing this), the final result being me shouting

"For the last time, you are holding a banana!"

They had what they wanted. It did not satisfy. 

This quest for satisfaction does not stop at childhood. We do not grow out of it. I have pursued so many life goals and yet never been satisfied. The job, the house, the car, the family, the status, the power. All not enough. There is an uncomfortableness about being human and we crave comfort.

The Bible answers this with a great truth - only one thing can satisfy. While The Hungry Caterpillar teaches us we are made for a purpose (The Very Hungry Caterpillar Post), Dear Zoo teaches us we need to make sure we are pursuing the right purpose. Our heart's were made to worship and worship we shall - literally anything. And not even for a sustained period of time, we're fickle as well as idolatrous, a winning combination if ever there was one.

Dear Zoo is the pursuit of satisfaction in the wrong place. The seeking of love in the wrong place. The Bible answers our longing cries for this satisfaction with this;

"The fear of the LORD leads to life,

and whoever has it rests satisfied;

he will not be visited by harm"

Proverbs 19v23

We will never find satisfaction until we find rest in Jesus. What we start in our highchairs we take to our office chairs. The only thing that can give us what we need is Jesus, our problem is we don't think we need it. And we'd rather have shinier, funnier, fluffier things instead. 

We are idol factories, turning out one after another and hoping for a different outcome. Dear Zoo ends with the zoo finally sending a puppy - which I imagine they had to outsource as it's not a zoo staple. The reality is the child was looking in the wrong place. They needed a pet shop not a zoo. And so it is with us. We go to anywhere else other than the Bible to find what we're looking for. And we do it again, and again, and again. These small tantrums with your idol filled toddler are an outworking of what we all hide in our hearts - they just haven't developed a filter yet. Our job, in these Dear Zoo filled moments is to point them in the right direction. You cannot fill the void. But you know a man who can...