Growly: Part 1

Below is a children's story about grown-up heartaches. This IS a serious post. Growly is Part 1 of 3.

Photo Cred: Daniele Manta

Growly was a big lion. He was the biggest of his pride and all the other lions followed him, especially when they hunted. One day while Growly was on his hunt, he met a lamb drinking at a pond.

“Please don’t eat me!” The lamb said as Growly walked up to him.

Growly was so hungry, and the lamb was so weak and small. “Why?” said Growly. “You are food, and I am supposed to eat you. That’s how God made me.”

“Yes, but it’s wrong! We are your friends. God wants you to love your friends and not eat them.”

Growly shook his mane and grunted. “But I’m still hungry.”

“Let’s do a trade, then.” The lamb said, “Eat the fish in this pond. It will fill your hunger, and I will be your friend.”

Growly thought about the trade and agreed. “Okay. You can be my friend for three days, and I will eat the fish at this pond. If I like being your friend after three days, then I will let you go.”   

So Growly spent three days talking with the lamb. They talked about small things like how the sky turned milky red at sunset. They laughed at the critters in the trees that bumped into each other as they hopped around. Growly told the lamb about other things like the pain that was deeper than hunger. It kept Growly awake on cold nights and made him want to hunt more the next day.

“That’s because you don’t have love,” the lamb said. “When you don’t love, your heart doesn’t know what to do, so it does other things.”

After three days, Growly realized he was going to miss the lamb. “Please stay!” 

He said. “I can eat the fish. Just be my friend.”

The lamb said, “I will always be your friend, but I have a shepherd. He’s looking for me, and I need to go back home.”

Growly growled loud and angry. “You’re leaving because you aren’t my friend! 

Don’t hate me now!”

The lamb was not afraid. He said, “Growly, you wanted me to fill the hunger in your belly, but I have filled the hunger in your heart. I am your friend, and I will always love you.”

Growly stopped growling. He was sad, but he wasn’t angry anymore. “I love you, too, Lamb.” And he let the lamb go.