A little while back an article was published about a twelve year old Ethiopian girl being protected by lions from seven men who were trying to abduct her and force her into marriage with one of them. Here's the version of the story that I read: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/8305836/ns/world_news-africa/t/ethiopian-girl-reportedly-guarded-lions/#.UYiKgLWTjKA To recap, three lions (sex of lions was not specified) stood guard for roughly half a day over a girl who had been kidnapped and beaten. The lions protected her from the men but dispersed when officials who could help her arrived. An "animal behavior expert" speculated that it was her crying/whimpering that drew the lions near and convinced them not to eat her because, he believed, they mistook her for a baby lion.
First of all, let me say that I was moved to tears by this story for three reasons: my daughter is now ten and the mere idea of something like this happening to her sends me into a panic, the statistic they gave at the end of the article saying that 70% of Ethiopian marriages begin with abductions of this manner broke my heart, and the fact that such strange and exceptional behavior by the lions could be so easily dismissed as a instinctual snafu filled me with dismay.
Lions kill the young of their prey all the time, and those animals cry out too. Even if they were drawn in by the sound of her crying, mistaking it for a baby lion, they most certainly could smell the very human blood that she was covered in and could see with their keen eyes that she was indeed not one of their kind. Yet they stayed for half a day.
We are all leery of shouting, "Miracle!" To do so invites mockery. But what if it was? Would that be so terrible? (My definition of a miracle is an extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human knowledge or power, which includes the behavior of animals and all of the natural world. It does not have to be attributed to a "supernatural" source, but it demonstrates that there are greater things at work than we can fully understand). There are, in fact, amazing and unexplained things happening all the time that we consistently dismiss as coincidences, magical thinking, and misinterpretations. Wouldn't the world be a much more hopeful place if we could allow these events to exist alongside all the shitty things that we accept without question?
Many years ago I read a true story about another strange animal rescue. A woman had ended up in the ocean stranded and alone after the boat she was on sank. She was treading water and trying to swim but was facing certain death. A large turtle showed up and when it got close to her it turned over on its back so that it was upside down in the water. This is an unnatural way for a turtle to swim. She grabbed onto the underside of the shell and held on for several days. Yes, days. I believe it was three. All that time the turtle stayed belly up, swimming and holding her and not feeding. When they approached land the turtle turned back over and left without looking back. She was saved because a normally solitary creature that generally demonstrates no fondness for humanity and could have, at any time, bitten off all of her fingers and left her for dead decided instead to offer itself up as her life raft.
I know what many people would be asking. What about all those that aren't saved in such ways? What about all of the other little girls being abducted and forced into marriage? Where were their guardians? Why was this one Ethiopian girl out of thousands and thousands spared in such a way? It's not fair, certainly. Not fair at all. But the rareness of such events shouldn't lead us to minimalize them. As a matter of fact, if we gave them our focus we might begin to notice more and more events that defy explanation, more and more that give us hope.
I hope with all of my heart that the girl does recognize this as a miracle. I hope that she remembers every day that giant predators came out of the forest to surround her with protection. They didn't see her as the vulnerable snack that she so easily could have been. They acted as though they believed she had value -- that she was worth saving. I hope that she begins to believe this about herself as well. I hope that her story helps all kinds of other young girls in Ethiopia to believe the same thing about themselves. I hope they rise up together and stand between those that are frightened and hurt and the ones that would harm them, making this the very last generation where marriages begin in abduction. I hope they are filled with the spirit of the lions, with the strength and the pride and the courage of the wild things that are so often more kind and fair than the "tame". But most of all, I hope that we all begin to allow miracles back into our world at large, learning to look for them and celebrate them every day.
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