As I have mentioned previously, our local theme park is based on The Little Prince. It is called Le Parc du Petit Prince, and my family spends entirely too much time there. An entire section of the park is a petting zoo, its principal denizens being a flock of sheep. The petting zoo is called, “Apprivoise-nous” (Tame us). Cute, or c-u-t-e?
Every single time we have gone there, I say to my eldest, “I wonder what they do with the wool from the sheep?” As he goes through the flock, petting all of them, he says, “What would you make with this one?” (He thinks everything I make is too scratchy…so it would never be anything for him!)
Finally, one of the last times he and I went, he said, “Why don’t you just ask them, already?” So I did.
“What do you do with the wool when you shear the sheep?” I asked.
“Nothing,” replied Musa, the guy responsible for the animals. “Do you want it?”
“YES!” my eldest replied.
Musa and I exchanged numbers and in April, when the shearing happens, I will get my very own inheritance from the Little Prince: several kilos of fleece to wash and card and spin, and, if everything goes well, to knit.
(My eldest, who is seated beside me right now, wants to make sure you know that he will be helping me. He wants to make blankets.)
Poetic philosophizing
I returned to le Parc du Petit Prince the other day, and happened upon this quote :
The proof that the Little Prince existed is that he was charming, that he laughed, and that he was looking for a sheep. If anybody wants a sheep, it is proof that he exists.
Antoine de Saint Exupéry
The Little Prince
What is the proof that you exist? What is the inexplicable identity-forming desire that lives in your heart?
We learn from a very young age to repress our more dangerous and irrational desires. Heck. I am at this very moment trying to teach my youngest to suppress his desire to play with a hammer and put his feet on the table (both have resulted in tantrums. Send help!) I’m not talking about those kinds of desires.
Putting aside what is dangerous or entirely irrational: is there a desire in your heart that you have been trying to ignore? What would happen if, instead of just shoving this desire down deep away from prying eyes, you allowed this desire to surface?
Do you believe that this desire could be something that was written into your heart by your Creator? Possibly? If that’s true, is it possible that maybe, if you would be willing to ask him to, he might help make that desire a reality?
I mean: I, a girl from Bay Village, Ohio, wanted to learn how to spin wool, and I was gifted an unexpected inheritance of a spinning wheel from an exceptionally large family I’m not even related to in Alsace, France. This desire was something pretty crazy, and so is the fulfillment of this desire. But it happened.
I needed some more wool to spin, and with a little encouragement from my eldest scalawag, asked and got a positive reception. Ask and you shall receive, right?
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
James 1:17
What do you desire? What is that light in your heart that you can’t extinguish? Do you believe that God cares?
Stop limiting yourself. Stop limiting God. Don’t cut yourself off from your inheritance.
Just ask, already.
Sing With Your Feet 