Beyond The Experience

Four blind men sought to understand what kind of an animal an elephant is. They decided to visit the animal orphanage so that they can have a chance to ‘feel’ the elephant instead of relying on the unadding stories they had heard from other people. One thing that stuck from all the stories they had heard was that; an elephant is a massive animal.

On the day of the visit, one of the blind men was not feeling well. And so he was left behind as the rest went ahead to the orphanage. On arrival, each man had an individual chance to feel the elephant. The first one got the stomach. He stretched his hands all over and he could feel the massive stomach.

The second man found the leg, he moved his hands round and round the elephant and sure enough, he couldn’t agree more how massive an elephant is. And the third one found the tail. He was so amused at the flexibility of this massive animal. It was a dream come true for the blind men. True to what they had heard, they all agreed that elephants are massive animals.

On arriving home, their friend was waiting eagerly to get a description of the elephant from trusted sources. He knew since his blind friends understood his physical challenges, they would be the best people to give the most accurate description.

The first man started, “wah! the elephant is a massive wall. So massive I overstretched my hands to feel the end with no success”. Even before he had finished, the other two had intruded. The second one shouting disagreed with the first one. “How can an elephant be like a wall? Stop playing with our friend’s mind, an elephant is like a huge tree.” I felt it with my hands, round and round I could not even hug the massive tree with my hands stretched.

At that point, the third blind man was so angry he felt betrayed. “Why can’t we be fair to our unwell friend? He at least needs to know how an elephant looks like.’’ He then continued to say, “an elephant is like a rope.’’ The first blind man fainted.

The fourth blind man was even more confused. What kind of an animal is this elephant? A massive wall, a mighty tree or is it a rope? He could not understand as the two other men tried to give first aid to the first man.

And I think that how blind we are before God. He desires that we may come to the full knowledge of him, but some three blind men from the orphanage called religion has all of us divided, confused and scattered. It’s time went beyond the experience. Let’s press on to the knowledge of the fullness of Christ, and then we may come to the unity of faith.