Hidden Wealth

  

And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”  Exodus 33:14

From where does the label “white elephant” come?  Once again, the lazy researcher in me is grateful for the internet!  Because of Google and wonderful Wikipedia, this is what I found straight from Wikipedia: “A white elephant is an idiom for a valuable but burdensome possession of which its owner cannot dispose and whose cost (particularly cost of upkeep) is out of proportion to its usefulness or worth.”  So today I discovered a definition somewhat opposite than what I had always believed to be a “white elephant” --  an item that really isn’t worth much to the owner, but sold or given away to someone else who appreciates its worth.

The origin of the white elephant is Southeast Asia where ruling kings owned white elephants.  White elephants are also important in Buddhist theology, but I won’t go into all of that here.  My white elephant looks very much like the white elephants of Southeastern Asian paintings.  Its ornamentation assumes some kind of royal standing…the howdah (a new word I learned today!) is the seat upon the elephant’s back where the monarch might sit and also attested to the wealth of that ruler.

My husband gave me this white elephant several years ago when he was still working with the Kansas National Education Association.  Every year, the staff would hold a “white elephant” Christmas party.  The idea was to get rid of something that didn’t cost much – sometimes the gifts were at least useful – sometimes they were “duds” unless one saw hidden worth.  (Remember the adage, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure?)  Bob knew the hidden “wealth” of this elephant immediately. Remembering his kooky collector wife who tends elephants, he latched on to this gift right away! Hard to imagine a more ironic context in which to receive this particular elephant!  I use it as a bookend, and wish I had another matching one.  (You know that elephants are like potato chips – you can’t just have one!) Okay, I plagiarized that from a sign I saw recently about cats.  But I digress.

This morning, as I was really examining this elephant—one of the little pleasures of doing this each Friday—I noticed the detail of its ornamentation and that’s of course, when I took special notice of the howdah – I used my new word again!  I imagined the elephant’s strong, solid, capable body carrying me on its back.  I imagined the swaying motion – perhaps enough to make me motion-sick, but nevertheless quite a ride! For some reason this imagery brought to my mind the popular “Footsteps” prayer of controversial origin. It’s a lovely prayer yet I don’t feel quite right about copying it on this blog but if you want to read it all you have to do is Google! The message of that prayer is clear…Christ carries us through all circumstances even those (especially those!) that might make us sway a bit! Most of the time, it isn’t until the gift of hindsight touches us that we realize how He carried us through.

Lord, you are surely an awesome God…more powerful and strong than any elephant; surely your presence is more indicative of true wealth than any “howdah” or ornamentation. 

So here’s the deal. Daily acknowledging His presence in my life, I am given rest, and I am a wealthy woman indeed!