DOWN TO SIZE

Annie Dillard wrote, “An author advised me to set my mind at ease about finding little piles of cut stems on the ground in grassy fields. Field mice make them; they cut the grass down by degrees to reach the seeds in the head. It seems that when the grass is tightly packed, as in a field of ripe grain, the blade won’t topple at a single cut through the stem; instead the cut stem simply drops vertically, held in the crush of the grain. The mouse severs the bottom again and again, the stem keeps dropping an inch at a time, and finally the head is low enough for the mouse to reach the seeds.”

So many of life’s problems are just like this for us… they cannot be solved with one quick attempt. Many things take a strategy of step-by-step, working diligently until we can cut our problems down to size. Most of us simply do not have the patience of the little mouse to keeping cutting and chewing until we have by degrees come to our desired results.

Keep gnawing brothers and sisters; keep gnawing.

“The worker is worthy of his wages.” Jesus