Who He Really Is
We just heard in the Bible the story called The Transfiguration. You can read it in Matthew 7:1-9. Jesus took three friends up on a mountain and then he changed. He became all shiny and bright and God spoke and said in loud words “THIS IS MY SON AND I LOVE HIM!” What an amazing thing that must have been to see. But I was thinking about what it meant for you and me, and I talked it over with my good friend Little Barty Badger and he told me this story.
One day, as the legend goes, the squirrel was on an adventure. Well, he thought he was on an adventure. The squirrel had gone around with that Badger for a little while, and the badger did have some good things to say, but, really, he was just a badger. Who was that badger anyway? And what did he know about Squirrel Adventures?
Like, there was one time when the squirrel really wanted to have an adventure where he switched all the animal’s shoes so none of them fit quite right, but the Badger said no.
Or another time, the squirrel wanted to sneak into everyone's burrows and dens while they were out and replace all their soft, cozy pillows with pinecones. Not painful pinecones, just... uncomfortably lumpy ones. But the badger said no. Again.
The badger even said that the squirrel couldn’t turn all the signs in the forest around so that the path to the pond pointed toward the meadow, and the path to the meadow pointed toward the pond, and everyone would end up somewhere perfectly fine, just... not where they expected. Who did this badger think he was? All he wanted to do was help other animals and eat snacks and eat snacks while helping animals. Silly badger. He probably wouldn’t know a real adventure if it plopped in his lap.
So, the squirrel left the badger and went off to find his own adventures. The problem was that nothing actually felt very adventure-full. Maybe the badger did something to him. The squirrel sighed as he spun a sign around so people would get lost going to the berry bushes. The squirrel wondered what the badger was doing.
That was when he heard it. Some animal yelled “hhhheeelllllppppp” off in the woods. For sure, that’s where the badger will be, so the squirrel decides to squirrel over there and check it out.
As the Squirrel scampers through the branches, he sees Old Turtle, who can’t see very well at all, had stepped onto a log in the river thinking it was a rock. The turtle and the log were now churning down stream, caught in the current! There was the Badger, munching on a peach. He took one look at the turtle on a log swept away by the river and then… made a pile of leaves? The squirrel was confused. The badger took his peach pit, and threw it with all his might at a tree. It bounced off a pinecone, which flew off the tree and nocked a dead branch loose, which swung on a vine down toward the turtle. The branch hooked onto the turtle and kept swinging, taking the turtle in a wide arc (with him yelling the whole way) and then plopped the turtle gently onto the pile of leaves. The badger offered the turtle another peach.
The squirrel’s jaw dropped. He had never seen anything so amazing! This is who the badger really was! He didn’t just know about adventures, he was adventure. What was his name? Oh yeah… Barty Badger. The most amazing adventurer.
Well, that’s what the legend says, but I know one thing is true: sometimes, we get to see who a person really is.
