Adventuring for All
There's a story about Jesus at a well, talking to a woman from a place called Samaria. You can read about it in John 4. Other people, and even the woman herself, had all kinds of reasons why Jesus shouldn’t be talking to her, but he still did. I was wondering about that, and I talked it over with my good friend Little Barty Badger who told me this story.
One day, as the legend goes, The Squirrel was off on an adventure. It was his very first adventure all on his own. That Badger, Barty was his name, had shown him a bunch of stuff and the Squirrel actually listened! Well, listened to most of it. Some of it. There was a lot of talk about snacks and helping and all that, but one thing really lodged in the squirrel’s mind. There was going to be a feast somewhere in the deep woods in Old Raven’s Forest, but only the greatest adventurers could get to it. Was he a good enough adventurer? The Squirrel wasn’t sure, but decided to try.
He did his best to trundle, but tripped on his feet and fell over. So he just squirreled his way through the forest until he came to a Gate. The Squirrel was confused. Why is there a gate in the middle of the forest? On the gate was an Owl. “Who are you?” demanded the Owl. The squirrel told him he was on his way to the feast. The Owl hooted and said he had to pass a test to get in and he rattled off 12 questions about adventuring, about plants, and other animals, and what a quadratic equation was. The squirrel didn’t know any of that. The Owl laughed. “You can’t go to the feast! You don’t know all the answers. You’re not a real adventurer.”
The Squirrel deflated a little bit when a Deer trotted up to the gate. “To get to the feast you have pass an agility test!” And the Deer leapt and bounded and sprinted through a course, but there was no way the Squirrel could jump as far as the Deer. The Deer said, “You can’t go to the feast! You aren’t strong enough. You’re not a real adventurer.”
The Squirrel shrunk down even more. And then another older Squirrel came up to the gate. The Old Squirrel looked at the Young Squirrel and said “You can’t go to the feast! Your family isn’t from the right part of the forest. You’re not a realadventurer!”
The Squirrel slumped all the way down. “I guess it’s true,” he said. “I’m not a real adventurer.”
Just then, there was a laugh. The kind of laugh that made the Squirrel want to laugh, too. And there was Barty Badger. “Oh no,” laughed Barty to the Gatekeepers. “This one’s with me. He’s going to the Feast! He needs to go find out what his name is.” The Owl and the Deer and the Squirrel sputtered and harrumphed but Barty just went and opened the gate. He smiled at the Squirrel and the two trundled off together.
Well, that's what the legend says, but I know one thing is true: the best of friends open the way for all.
