June 19, 2000
DOWN HOME:
When gorillas shred your life,
you can be mended
___Have you ever wondered what happened to that gorilla who starred in several luggage commercials a few years ago?
___You remember the gorilla I'm talking about: Somebody gave this gorilla a suitcase, and he used it as his very own jungle gym. He jumped on it like a trampoline. He beat it like a drum. He threw it against a rock wall. He dropped it out of a tree.
___The gorilla was hired--I hear he worked for mere bananas--to demonstrate the toughness and durability of the luggage. If a 500-pound gorilla can't hurt your suitcase, then surely the bag can withstand the abuse of bellhops and airline baggage handlers.
MARV KNOX
Editor
___Have you ever wondered what happened to that gorilla? I think I've found him. For about a decade now, I've carried a suitbag made by the same company that hired the gorilla to make its commercial. And it has been a great bag. It has cradled my clothes on Lord-knows-how-many trips, mostly to Baptist conventions and meetings of one sort or another. It was a missionary bag, holding up well on trips to Russia and Mexico.
___But it didn't survive the trip to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting last week.
___I think it met up with that gorilla-- now armed with machetes, or maybe a lawn mower. Or maybe the gorilla stuffed my bag in turning jet turbines, just to see what would happen.
___There I was, waiting at the airport baggage claim, when out pops the most pathetic-looking suitcase I've ever seen. "Pity the poor guy who owns that bag," I first thought. Then I saw my laminated business card hanging from the handle. The bag looked like it had been shredded, mangled, folded, spindled and mutilated. And the other side was really torn up.
___The worker at the airline's baggage-claims department was very nice. She said both she and her airline (and, I'm assuming, the gorilla) were very sorry about my shredded bag. I did, however, detect the slightest smile when she asked how old my suitcase was and I said, "Ten years, ma'am." Don't hold your breath until the airline sends me enough money to buy a new bag.
___Sometimes, I've returned from long trips alone and felt about like that poor bag looked. Shredded, worn out. I don't sleep well when Joanna's not along, and I miss my girls like crazy. But after a couple nights in my bed and a couple evenings with the family, I'm about as good as new.
___Sometimes, life treats us like something treated my suitcase. We get beat up and abused by the pressures and hardships of life. And our souls get shredded. Fortunately, the love of the Lord who made us, and even that gorilla, can put us back together again.
___Which is more than I expect for my suitbag.
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