Worms Have No Way to Learn Some Things
Silly things bother me. While I was walking in the light rain this morning, I stepped on a worm.
It was totally unintentional. It is a case of being in the right place at the wrong time. I was in the right and the worm was in the wrong.
What bothers me is that worms don't know that they shouldn't attempt to cross a sidewalk.
When it rains, the sidewalk is a gentle stream, but when the rain stops and the sun warms the face of the earth, the wayward worm loses all ability to continue down the path chosen, and he dries up.
Not a pretty sight. I know, for I have seen many remnants of desert crossings on my daily walks.
But today I had a chance to impact the fate of one errant journeyman, and I failed miserably. By the time I noticed the poor guy, my sneaker was already upon him. If that worm could speak, what would he have said?
They spoke against God and against Moses, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!" - Numbers 21:5
The very thing that helps the worms live and grow, the rain, leads some of them to their doom.
There is a responsibility that comes with salvation, isn't there? It's not enough to be given a gift from God, in the worm's case, rain, and in ours, grace, forgiveness, or manna. We need to accept it and then take hold of our own lives, make the right choices and move in the right direction.
It is one thing to trust in God, and to believe that God will provide for us. Jesus even told us not to worry about such things, for the Father will give good things to his children, but what is our part in all this undeserved and unwarranted grace?
Once Moses led the people out of Egypt, they put themselves in his hands. Where he went, they followed, trusting him at first, and then blaming him for their fate.
They depended on him, and he depended on God. So, when things got unbearable, as they tend to do, it was clearly someone else's fault, not theirs.
Humans are lucky. They can communicate with each other, and in some cases, what they communicate may even be worth hearing, the product of a developed mind, as opposed to the nervous system of an earthworm.
But do we learn from our mistakes?
The worm who gets sundried on the pavement has no way to share the terrible experience with his friends and neighbors. He can't get to them, and they won't come to him. If they did, they would discover for themselves that it was a bad move on their part.
So, even if worms can communicate, and we may never know if they can, there are some things they just have no way of learning from each other.
I like to think that we can.
We can, can't we?
Image credit: hsagencia / 123RF Stock Photo