WESTERN WISDOM Season 4, Episode 08 "To See the Elephant" audio podcast by award-winning western author Stephen Bly. Sponsored by BlyBooks.com Legacy Series.
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TO SEE THE ELEPHANT
Stephen Bly
Circa 1995
All the 400,000 people were called ‘49ers who made the gold rush in California, in those first ten years very few of them made any money.
In Goldfield they knew they wouldn't all get rich. But they went West because as they said, “To see the elephant.”
The Farmer at the Circus
Popular at the time was a story about a farmer who had heard of elephants but never seen one and longed to do so. When the circus came to a nearby county he loaded his wagon with eggs and vegetables and started for the market near the circus. On the route he met the circus parade led by the elephant. The farmer was enchanted but his horses were terrified. They bucked and pitched and overturned the wagon and ran away, scattering his goods all over the countryside.
The farmer was tossed to the roadway, The wagon was broke ,the horses lost, the eggs and vegetables ruined and the old man limped his way home on foot.
Friends and family gathered to console him on his many losses, he commented, “I don’t give a hang about that stuff. I have seen the elephant!”
Jesus and '49ers
The ‘49ers and those who followed wanted to see the elephant and that they did. There is an attraction, an adventure when you're at the right spot where history is being made.
I think that is exactly the sense of adventure that surrounds Jesus every step of His ministry. That's why tough fisherman like Peter and James and John responded to Jesus’ call. The Bible says, “At once they left their nets and followed him.”
They had no idea what would happen next. They certainly didn't figure it would make them rich. But they had an inkling that it would be historic. They went to be with Jesus in order to, well, in order to see the elephant. And what they witnessed was historic beyond anyone's imagination.
The Call of Jesus
1 John 1:1 put it this way. “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at in our hands, and have touched, this we proclaim concerning the word of life.”
The exciting part is that Jesus is still around calling men to follow him. There's a lot of history yet to be written. It's happening every day in every town on the spiritual frontier.
Well, maybe it's about time for you to discover the treasures that neither fade nor rust. Unlike those old-time ‘49ers, you won’t even have to leave home to see this elephant.