God of Peace

CWO welcomes guest blogger Cindy Kroske who joins us today...

As we prepared lunch, I listened to a TV show. Alan Thicke narrated a story about “Winkie” an abused elephant.

Something in my mind triggered a remembrance…...

I Googled and discovered I’d once read all about Winkie.

Her younger years were filled with abuse so she became a dangerous animal,
but an elephant sanctuary gave her a second chance.

All was well until Winkie awoke one morning this past summer with one eye horribly swollen. It appeared insects, maybe even fire ants, had bitten during the night.

The founder of the sanctuary treated it, and released her to go outside. Later, as her handler, Joanna Burke, glanced at the swollen eye, Winkie freaked – evidently fearing she would be harmed.

With her massive head, the 7600 pound animal knocked the tiny 36-year-old handler to the ground, and crushed her to death.

The founder of the sanctuary rushed to her aid, but was knocked aside, his ankle broken. He later said it was all over in just 45 seconds.

I was stunned to think that Winkie would take the life of her precious handler. It’s hard to understand tragedy of such proportion.

Then I read on their website, http://www.elephants.com, “Although there is no question about what Winkie did, there are many questions as to why. All the information we can gather points to past trauma so intense, so debilitating, that Winkie has and very likely never will recover from it. Such trauma can invoke irreversible damage to the brain, causing Winkie to act out in ways beyond her control.”

A friend reminded me that an elephant never forgets!

You know – we humans don’t forget past trauma, either. I think it is firmly etched on our brains.

We all carry scars from our past--physical, emotional, mental and sometimes spiritual.

Oh, we find ways to cope, to move on with life--but deep in the recesses of our minds, we know it’s there.

My mother’s sister was 3 when she died after 4 days of the croup.

I once naively asked my grandmother how she recovered from such sorrow.

She replied that you never get over it. You carry it with you the rest of your life,
but you learn to cope, to move forward, and to remember the good.

I think my “Gaga” put Philippians 4:6-9 into play in her life. The New American Standard Bible says it this way, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”

“The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”

In Him... Cindy Kroske


Cindy is a homeschooling mom of 4, who runs her own health specialty store – My Favorite Things - with her husband, Mark. When she’s not busy teaching whole grain milling, and writing her newsletter “The Forum”, she stays busy with her kids and their menagerie of a horse, dogs, cats, gerbils, a ring necked dove, a ferret, and a Beta-fish! You’re welcome to visit their websites at www.My-FavoriteThings.com and www.GNLDfavorites.com