The Ant and The Grasshopper

A Story Originally Written by Aesop and Retold by Beau Henderson

Once upon a time there lived an ant and a grasshopper in a big beautiful meadow.

It was a gorgeous summer throughout the land. Every day, from sunrise to sunset, the ant would work hard, collecting grains of wheat from a far away farmer's field. She hurried to the field every morning just as soon as she had enough light to see her way, and returned back to her tiny home dragging a heavy grain of wheat. She would put the grain of wheat carefully away in her pantry, and then hurry back to the field to get another one. All day long she would work, without stopping to take a break or rest. She scurried back and forth from the field as long as there was light for her to see her way,  busily collecting the grains of wheat and storing them away very carefully in her winter pantry.

Every day the grasshopper would watch her and laugh. 'Why are you working so hard, sweet ant?' he would ask. 'Come, sit here with me and rest a while. Listen to me sing my song. Summer is here for all of us to enjoy, the days are long and bright. Why not take some time to bask in the sunshine, there is always plenty of time to labor and toil?'

The little ant did her best to ignore him.  She bowed her head further down and hurried to the field a little faster. This always made the grasshopper laugh even louder. 'What a silly little ant you are!' he would call after her. 'Come here little ant, come and dance with me! Forget about all of that hard work! Take some time to enjoy the sunshine!' The ant would just shake her head while she watched the grasshopper hopping across the meadow, singing and dancing merrily without a care in the world.

As it always happens, the summer faded into autumn, and autumn turned into winter. The sunshine was rarely seen, and the days were short and grey, the nights long and dark. It was freezing cold outside, and snow began to fall.

The grasshopper didn't feel like singing any more. He was cold and hungry. He had nowhere to go to get out of the snow, and he had nothing to eat. The meadow and the farmer's field were covered in snow, and there was no food to be found anywhere. 'Oh what shall I do? Where shall I go?' cried the grasshopper.

Suddenly he remembered the sweet little ant. 'Oh YES!! I shall go to the ant and ask her for food and shelter!' the thought made the grasshopper smile. So off he went to the ant's house and knocked at her door. 'Hello sweet ant!' he called out happily. 'Here I am, to sing for you, as I warm myself by your fire. And I know that you are a wonderful hostess, I can't wait to have some of the delicious food you have stored in that pantry of yours!'

Shocked, the ant looked at the grasshopper and very quietly said, 'All summer long I worked really hard while you made fun of me. You had a grand old time singing and dancing. Maybe you should have thought about how you were going to feed yourself and stay warm in the winter then! Find someplace else to sing for your dinner, grasshopper! There is no fire or food for you here!' And the little ant shut the door in the grasshopper's face.

It is wise to be thrifty today and prepare for tomorrow! In modern day terms, that means we are not going to finance our future, or our lifestyle, or our happiness today without taking care of the future first!

 

If you can't pay as you go …

You are going too fast!

SLOW DOWN!!

So what does God have to say about saving and investing?

Proverbs 21:20

 

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