Emphasis Preaching Journal

Hear for a moment what can only be described as pure fantasy. It seems that in an anthill once a lone scout brought back word that a peanut butter and jelly sandwich had fallen to earth a scant five minutes scurry to the south. "Wow!" said all the other ants as they poked a crumb that the scout pushed about for evidence. It was obviously from a slice of Wonder Bread and bore hints of Skippy's Smooth and Smucker's Grape. Immediately an entire safari galloped off for the sandwich. Upon reaching it, the ants swarmed, legs kicking and feelers dancing all over the soft mountains of purple, white and brown. Then, however, the strangest of events took place. Instead of setting up the usual conveyer belt back to the hill, the ants began to drift away. Some went after grains of sand. Others headed for twigs. Still others drifted about in lazy circles, completely ignoring the feast in their midst. At last only the scout was left on top of the sandwich. "How can this be?" he said to himself. "How can they ignore something so good?"

Now as I said, this is pure fantasy. Creatures of instinct are too smart to let go of blessings when they come. Is it, then, any wonder that Paul said, "I'm astonished," to the Galatians? And should we not be astonished when we find others or, more to the point, ourselves drifting away from a treasure so good, so close at hand?