FOODFORTHOUGHT

THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER

Author Unknown

July 28, 2012

A mother of a 9 year old boy, Mark, received a phone call in the middle of
the afternoon. It was the teacher from her son's school.

"Mrs. Smith, something unusual happened today in your son's third grade
class. Your son did something that surprised me so much that I thought you
should know about it immediately."

Mother seldom want to hear from their child's teacher in the middle of the
day. The mother was uneasy and nervous by such a beginning to a phone call.
"What now?" the mother wondered.

The teacher continued, "I have been teaching for many years and nothing like
this has happened until now. This morning I was teaching a lesson on
creative writing. And as I always do, I tell the story of the ant and the
grasshopper. The ant works hard all summer and stores up plenty of food. But
the grasshopper plays all summer and does no work.

Then winter comes. The grasshopper begins to starve because he has no food.
So he hops to the ants house and begins to beg. 'Please Mr. Ant, you have
much food please let me eat, too.' Now boys and girls your job is to write
the ending to the story.

Your son, Mark, raised his hand. "Teacher, may I draw a picture?"

"Well, yes, Mark, if you like, you may draw a picture. But first you must
write the ending to the story."

The papers came in. As in all the years past, most of the students said that
the ant shared his food through the winter and both the ant and the
grasshopper lived.

As always, a few children said, 'The ant said, "No, Mr. Grasshopper. You
should have worked in the summer and not played. Now, I have just enough
food for myself." So the ant lived and the grasshopper died.

But your son ended the story in a way different from any other child, ever.
He wrote, "So the ant gave all of his food to the grasshopper; the
grasshopper lived through the winter. But the ant died."

And the picture?

At the bottom of the page, Mark had drawn three crosses. "He gave everything
to us so that we might live; but Jesus died."