Many years ago something aired on the news that immediately gave me goose bumps and left a lasting impression.

The story was about a lion that was sold as a baby over in England. These two men bought the lion and named him Christian. Christian became their pet.

They gave Christian the utmost care and raised him like most people would raise a dog.

The lion never clawed at them or tried to attack.

Needless to say, a lion is much different than a dog.

This animal eventually got so big that it was not feasible for the two men to keep him at their home anymore. They did lots of research and found a man in Africa that was an expert at releasing animals back into the wild.

After a tearful goodbye, Christian was put into the hands of this expert, and eventually released into the wild.

After a few years, the two men decided they wanted to go back to Africa and see what progress Christian had made.

Upon arrival, they were warned not to try to find the lion because he was now the leader of his pride and a wild animal.

They were told it would be dangerous to get close to Christian.

The two men didn’t listen and decided to look for Christian anyway.

From a distance, they spotted their old pet, and called his name.
The lion came barreling towards them. This looked like a disaster waiting to happen, but the result was even more incredible.

The lion jumped up and wrapped around both men, licking them and rubbing up against them. He showed no sign of aggression towards his previous owners.

This instantly gave me chills to see this wild animal remember two men who had raised him from a young age.

There are so many times when we are told, “you can take the animal out of the wild, but you can’t take the wild out of the animal.”

Maybe that quote is true in most cases, but in this heartwarming story, it was false.

This enormous, strong, fang-bearing animal could have mauled both of these men without much effort, but he remembered them and only showed them love.

This story has a good lesson: there is always an exception to the rule.

It most definitely would not be smart for a person to go to Africa and try to call a lion.

More often than not, the result would be devastating, but there is one case that will always remain different.