"Lion Hugs" and a Glimpse into Paradise Restored

The above story is true. It has been verified by Snopes (click here for the full story). It calls to mind another famous video of a lion who likes to hug his benefactor.

Perhaps the most extraordinary thing is that not only does Christian the lion come back to give hugs to his friends after living in the wild, he brought along his lioness for a visit as well.

This incident and those like it are wee glimpses into the glories of our future Paradise where the peace and harmony of all creation is restored, especially as foretold in Isa 11:6 and Isa 65:25. Even in its fallen state, the universe made by the Creator is a wondrous and mysterious thing.

Though I've never had such an incident with a lion, I did have a similar meeting with a family of Canada geese.

A little more than a decade ago, I was working for a consulting firm whose office was in a typical corporate park. Not far away was a pond where ducks and geese were to be found. In the middle of winter (this was snowy Pennsylvania), a mother Goose nested - smack in the middle of the parking lot, on a small "island" of ground at the foot of a little tree. For some unknown reason, a lot of people found her presence annoying (which goes to show you how loathed the very concept of motherhood is these days). Mother Goose sat on her eggs for several weeks, with Father Goose close by. I would go outside and visit her every day. I would speak softly to her, and she would let me come very close. After a while, she even raised up to show off her four eggs to me. I would bring her food and water - which she really seemed to appreciate - especially when a blizzard came. Father Goose always watched warily, but he seemed to trust me.

One day, the nest was empty. The only thing inside were egg shells and down. I had no idea what happened to the little family. That is, until a few days later, I was strolling around the grounds, and caught sight of two adults and four chicks running full speed - right at me, honking and flapping wildly. At first, I thought they were coming to attack! But instead, they were coming to visit. Mother and father Goose were unworried in the least as the tiny goslings walked right up to me, as though they were my long lost friends.

They joined the larger flock of geese at the pond. Mrs. Hollywood and I would come to visit (as a few sour know-it-all types would inevitably roll their eyes at us and warn us to "stay away from the geese" because "they're mean" and "they'll bite you!"). But that simply never happened.

In fact, when the geese would see me coming, the entire flock, probably a gaggle of a hundred adults and children, would come running, waddling and flapping their wings, over the crest of the hill, in what looked like a giant party. It was utterly comical. We picked the goslings up and cradled them in our laps as the parents looked on unworried. We have some great pictures we took with our friends. It made me wonder what the know-it-all types had done to them to make them "mean" to them.

Like Mrs. Hollywood said today as we were thinking back on our visits with the geese - especially in light of this story about Christian the lion - it goes to show you that even a wild animal can appreciate kindness and is capable of understanding, and even remembering, such treatment four years later - showing his gratitude by demonstrable affection.