The Great Rhinoceros Hunt

Emry woke up yesterday morning on a mission. She had already found the bamboo back-scratcher and pulled out one of the drawers under her captain’s bed (as far as it would go), poking and prodding in a vain attempt at getting the stick beyond the drawer before I understand what she was seeking: her rhinoceros. Rhinoceros? What rhinoceros? It took several moments before I remembered – oh, that rhinoceros!

Her first Christmas, Aunt Grace gave her a little black wooden rhinoceros from Kenya – an object to remind her of Aunt Grace who has thus far been half way across the world most of her young life. For a while, it sat in her room with other little mementos. Then she started playing with them during naptime, so I removed them up high where she couldn’t damage or break them. But I hadn’t seen the rhinoceros in months. A quick glance at the shelf in her closet told me he wasn’t within my line of vision, but didn’t mean he wasn’t there. I told her we needed to get breakfast first. Then we would pray to Jesus to help us find the rhinoceros and look for him. Amazingly, she agreed. But it was a short breakfast before she marched back upstairs, back-scratcher in hand and ready to hunt.

We did pray that we would find the rhinoceros because a more thorough search of the shelf (with the help of a stool) quickly told me the little black object was not where I had thought I had placed it. I searched some of Emry’s common “hiding” places (the little corners she puts things she doesn’t want Ethan to get), but no rhinoceros. Emry, meanwhile, was still prodding at that one drawer, jabbering that rhinoceros was in the drawer. If she had had him in bed, it was likely he could have slipped down the side of the mattress, through the slats and into the drawer; but we emptied the drawer and came up empty. But Emry was insistent. So, I started taking the bed apart.

Not literally. But I did have to pull all her “friends” off the bed and tip the mattress up on it’s side so I could get under the bed. The drawers don’t come out of the frame simply and the frame is too heavy to yank it from under the bed. But once I could see below, I could pull out the two drawers as far as they would go and see below them. Sure enough, there sat rhinoceros hiding in the corner.

I don’t have any clue how he got in there. Nor can I figure out how she knew this after we had not seen the rhinoceros in months. But we thanked Jesus for helping us find rhinoceros.

Later that day when we went up for a nap, she found one of the Turtle Tots Aunt Katey had given her (they had been Aunt Katey’s) lying on the floor with her other “friends”. I had found it wedged under the mattress in search of the rhinoceros and tossed it on the floor. She was so delighted.

“It’s Papa turtle!” she exclaimed happily. (Almost all her toys are qualified as “Papa”, “Mama”, “Emry” and “Ethan”.) “Jesus helped us find him!”

So, we thanked Jesus for helping us find “Papa Turtle”. Proof that often God provides even when we don’t ask!