Last week, I posted the The Ant vs. The Grasshopper story and, as I expected, it became quite a conversation starter with various family members and friends. What I didn’t realize was that quite a few people actually thought that I was promoting one “side” over the other - namely, the position of the ant. I guess I forget that not everyone knows me as well as I think!

I realize now that I should have elaborated a bit more on what I was thinking. Maybe you think because I’m a Christian that I’m some sort of right-wing nut job conservative Republican bully - when nothing could be further from the truth. For the ant’s part, his self-reliant, uncompassionate selfishness is just as bad as the grasshopper’s demand for entitlements.

You see, the truly sad part about the two “sides” of the story is that somewhere, there is a balance between the two extremes. Unfortunately, “balance” doesn’t sell newspapers.

Sometimes, as I talk to friend and associates, I begin to wonder if I’m the only one who thinks that it’s so easy in this day and age to get caught up into a two-dimensional view of the world: right vs. left, Republician vs. Democrat, conservative vs. liberal, and on and on it goes. But these are essentially nothing more than extensions of the original sin - eating from the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil”.

So many of my fellow-Christians (a.k.a. The Ant) are proudly conservative Republicans, railing against the evils of liberalism that they have no idea what God’s grace and mercy truly is - they want to put us solidly back under Old Testament Law. And of course, we have the other end of the spectrum: the truly God-less walking among us, saying “everything goes” with no consequences, and expecting to be entitled to everything their flesh desires.

Meanwhile, TRUE evil (call him “Satan” if you’d like) just looks on, using politicians and the media to encourage the fanatacism in both camps until it’s not even about the issues anymore - it’s simply “the other guy said it so it must be wrong”. And its so sad that such a huge majority of people simply accept that they have to associate with one side or the other, playing along like puppets on strings.

So this begs the question: could there be a world that IS more like what Jesus intended? If we could rewrite the fable with more of a New Testament world view, what would it look like? Maybe something like this:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he’s a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. The ant, however, being concerned for the grasshopper’s well-being, takes time out here and there to teach the grasshopper with parables that illustrate the foolhardiness of his course of action. But most of the time the grasshopper just shakes his head and goes back to partying.

Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, and curses the ant out of pride and bitterness. But despite all of this, the ant - even though he TOLD the grasshopper there would be consequences - invites him in, out of the cold, and shares what he has with him. Yes, the ant may not be as comfortable as he would have wished, but that’s a small sacrifice in light of the good he is doing. And who knows? With the grasshopper now a captive audience for the whole winter, the ant may yet be able to instill some sense into his green friend - so that maybe next year he won’t end up in the same predicament.

Just a pipe dream? Maybe….but what if it’s what we ALL strove for….?