Little Brown Bruno was a bear, the subject of a children’s book my
grandmother used to read to me when I was very young. Bruno was inquisitive, a
big word for a 5 year old, curious would be better used today, and got into many
situations when he didn’t obey his Mom and Dad. But every story had a happy
ending, with a lesson attached as to why to listen to your parents. How to use
your head for more than a hat rack, and lessons of courtesy, respect, and
obedience. All good things to teach a 5 year old, or any any year old, but to
me the exciting part was Little Brown Bruno getting into trouble. And at an age
where monsters and ghosts were scary, one story has stuck with me all these
years. Retold to my sons when they were growing up in various ways...still a
family favorite.
LBB slept with his window open on summer nights, and thought he heard a
noise. Then another, like a monster, he thought, and waking his parents, and
told he was dreaming, went back to sleep. But he heard it again, and after
waking his parents night after night, was told “don’t wake us again. It is a
dream you are having..” But LBB knew different. He shared the story of the
noise with his friends, who chided him, he was making it up, LBB you’re just a
baby. But he persisted, and one night, when the moon was full, he heard the
noise again. It sounded like a man crying for help, a deep voice, but without
words, just groaning. And how his imagination exploded inside him as he decided
to investigate. So tiptoeing past his parents room, he went out in the back
yard toward the sound, flashlight in hand. Shaking, not sure of who or what he
would see. And what to do when he did!
As he walked slowly through the wet grass towards the groaning noise, it
got louder, and louder. He would stop every few steps to see and hear, and
consider going on. Or going back to get his Dad, who might just yell at him,
for little bears do not go out at night alone. But the sound got louder, and in
the moonlight he could see two figures, both larger than him. They were out in
Farmer Brown’s field, and in the bright moonlight saw one had horns. Big
horns...and was groaning load, calling out to someone or something. He froze
dead in tracks, what if this creature with the big horns was calling to him?
Was calling to get him? It was dark and the middle of the night. He was all
alone, what if something happened to him? What if no one found him until
daylight? And he froze, then went on...
Seeing the monster in a pen, he felt safer, then heard another noise behind
him. Frozen in fear, he felt hot breath on his neck, and started to cry. So he
ran, towards the groaning noise, and stopped at the fence. Confronted by the
monster with huge horns! And hearing loud footsteps behind him, what to do?
Just before he was to pass out from fear, the monster charged him, huffing and
puffing, and in the moonlight saw what his monster really was. A huge long horn
steer, Farmer Brown’s pride and joy. Looking right at him, but really right
past him. For the hot breathing on his neck was another neighbors cow, who had
broken out and was going to visit the bull. The bull was calling to her, in
love, the sound that scared LBB was really a love call from from cow to
another! Boy did he feel stupid! And relieved. What a story to tell his
parents the next day, it was really a love call in the night from a bull to his
loved one. One that finally called LBB, and he just had to go see what it was.
He just hoped his parents would understand why is feet were wet....if they
understood at all.
We are told the spirit intervenes with groanings, too deep for us to
understand. But what sounds like noise to us is really language from heaven,
words that cannot be translated anywhere but in the spirit and by the spirit.
Jesus calls to us that way, maybe scary at first, then as our curiosity builds,
we investigate. Some call us foolish, some will discipline us for being weird.
Some will dismiss the claim altogether, but we know it is real. We know we are
being called, but by who? Why? It is only when we give into the spirit we see
the truth. And find salvation. Then a relationship in Christ begins, and we
pray. But too many prayers are like LBB’s, just a “now I lay me down to sleep,”
with no depth or knowing who we are praying to. Books are written, courses
taught, and sermons preached on how to pray, or pray more effectively. Yet
people go on, afraid of the groaning like LBB was. Until they begin to pray
more thoughtfully, to know prayer is part of a conversation, and too listen is
the best part. Why ask if you don’t want an answer? Why seek if you don’t want
to find? It is the thoughtful, personal prayer that has meaning and
significance, not just a rote bunch of words recited over and over. It is the
spirit drawing us to him, just like the bull reached out to his girlfriend the
cow, and how LBB had to go see.
The spirit is willing, the flesh is weak. But the spirit has not given up
on us, and is still desiring time to spend with us. Hearing is the last sense
to go in a person before death, but the spirit will continue to exist. To live
in heaven, or dwell in hell. To call to you until your last breath is gone,
wanting to save you. Throughout the Bible prayer is representative of
conversation with God. Before sin Adam and Eve walked with him in person, after
they had to call out to him. He never left them, they left him. From Noah to
David to Job, to Jonah and Jeremiah to Saul to the 12 disciples, all heard a
call from God and answered. The conversation started, the relationship begun.
Reunited with God through Jesus Christ via his spirit. So simple a bear could
respond and did to the calling. With on simple lesson to follow.
A man was telling me one morning of another book he had just read on how to
pray. Shaking my head, I had heard this story before, and hoped I wouldn’t
again. So I asked, “how do you speak to your wife? Why don’t you speak with
God the same way?” He had never considered God as a person, the person of Jesus
Christ. You can have a conversation with God? His prayer was with some cosmic
cloud, his wife was physical, and he got the idea. God is real, the calling is
real. Prayer is a dialogue, not a monologue. Begin by listening, and respond
to what the spirit is saying. The groanings too deep for words will suddenly
make sense. And go far beyond any conversation or prayer you ever had before.
Take it from a little brown bear who heard groaning in the night, God hears, and
God answers. Do you? And that’s no bull!
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.com