Bogs and Questions
After Jesus rose from the dead, he did all kinds of amazing things - like walk through locked doors! His friend Thomas missed one of those moments. You can read about it in John 20:24-31. I was wondering what Thomas's questions can teach us, and my good friend Barty Badger told me this story, and it helped me to understand.
One day, as the legend goes, Barty Badger and Esquilo the Squirrel (say ‘es-KEE-lo’) the Squirrel were off on an adventure. Barty said he knew the tree that made the very best acorns in all of Old Raven’s Forest. Esquilo wasn’t sure about that, and started to ask how Barty knew that and if he had tasted an acorn from every single tree in the whole forest and how long that had taken him and if that could be their next adventure when he remembered one time when he was a very young squirrel that an older squirrel told him questions were bad and to stop asking questions. And then Esquilo remembered another time when that happened. And then he remembered so many times! So Esquilo did not ask any of those questions.
They trundled along for a while in silence until they came to a bog, a huge mud pit that would grab your feet and suck you down. Esquilo saw it bubbling for some reason. Barty said, “Well, no way around this. We’ll have to cross.” Esquilo wasn’t sure, and almost asked how they were going to cross and why they couldn’t just climb a tree… and lots more questions. But he didn’t. Barty said, “To cross, we’ll need to bounce off the backs of those turtles.” Esquilo looked and, sure enough, there were six turtles all in a line right across the bog. One schlopped his head out of the mud and smiled at the two adventurers.
Now Esquilo really wasn’t sure. He raised up a paw, opened his mouth to ask a question, but then closed it again. He wasn’t about to get sucked into a bog because a turtle couldn’t hold him up! “Nope!” he said and went off to try to cross another way. He found the longest, straightest stick that he could, hefted it up by one end, ran forward, planted the other end in the middle of the bog to launch himself over it! Instead, the stick stuck straight up and down in the middle of the bog with no way to get anywhere. He started to slide slowly down the stick. “Ummm…” he said. “Help!”
Suddenly, there was Barty, standing calmly on the back of a turtle, not sinking at all. He caught Esquilo as he slowly slid to the bottom of the stick, laughing gently in a way that made Esquilo want to laugh, too. “Little squirrel,” said Barty, kindly. “I think you were about to ask a question.”
He set Esquilo down on another turtle, and Esquilo said, “Yeah… won’t the turtles move as we’re bouncing?”
“Great question!” Said Barty. “Thank you for asking. Wondering is a part of paying attention and I’m glad you’re paying attention. Why, yes, they will move. That’s half the fun!” And Barty bounced away from one turtle toward a part of the bog with no other turtles! But just before Barty hit the mud, a turtle shell appeared beneath him and bounced him off again. Esquilo laughed and joined in the bouncing.
Well, that’s what the legend says, but I know one thing is true: questions are an important part of adventures.
