There was a young man named Bert who noticed at an early age that he had a strange appetite for dirt. He ignored it for a time, hoping it would go away, but the compulsion lingered. “Why am I this way?” he wondered, distressed at this thing which seemed so unnatural compared to all those around him.
One day Bert heard a rumor that there were others who not only wanted to eat dirt, they actually indulged in it. This filled him with hope – maybe his appetite wasn’t askew at all! He met a dirt-eater one day and asked him about it. “Don’t you think it seems wrong and unhealthy to eat it?” The dirt-eater replied, “No! It doesn’t hurt me at all and it certainly doesn’t hurt anyone else – why should anyone care if I do it or not? If I feel like eating dirt, that makes it natural to me and therefore it’s a good thing. Don’t hold back anymore – join us as proud dirt-eaters!” Bert began cautiously, but before long he realized he’d been waiting his whole life to find others like himself. He was thrilled to find that the community of dirt-eaters was quite extensive and exciting. He thought he’d never been so happy.
But the dirt-eaters were wrong. The dirt not only did not nourish them, it was doing secret harm inside them, dreadful harm. A seed got planted in that dirt which was growing and taking the nutrients that were meant for the healthy parts of their bodies. Eventually, it would kill all of them.
Bert’s friends reacted in different ways when they learned of his new eating habits. Some friends were uncomfortable, but didn’t want to rain on his parade just because they didn’t want to eat dirt themselves. Others were more enlightened and openly congratulated Bert on his “Happy Eating,” saying that everyone ought to be able to eat whatever they wanted. And of course, his new friends, all Happy Eaters, were the kindred spirits that he’d always wanted.
But Bert had a brother, Kevin, with whom he’d always been close, and Kevin had recently been given the gift of special sight. Kevin was able to see what was happening inside the dirt-eaters’ bodies; he could see what they could not see. He tried to warn Bert. He told him about the peril that he was in, but Bert scoffed and said, “Why should I believe you? Why can’t you be happy for me? I thought you loved me!” Bert’s friends advised him to quit listening to Kevin and his hateful talk.
Kevin tried one last time to warn Bert, going to his house where there was a big party of dirt-eaters. Bert came to the door, but when he saw Kevin, he became angry and said, “Please do not come to my house; please do not try to contact me.” He gestured toward the gathering of people in his house, “This is my family now – they love me and accept me as I am. It saddens me that you do not know how to show love anymore. Goodbye.” and with that Bert closed the door.
Kevin turned around and left, filled with grief. He knew that his love for Bert exceeded that of his new friends, for they would not tell him the truth.
“There is a way that seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death.”
Proverbs 14:12
I got to thinking about writing a modern parable after we talked about parables in a Bible study. Sometimes it takes a story to open our eyes. This is a story about sin, about dirt-eating. Unless you have eyes to see, dirt eating can seem to make you happy, but in reality it’s killing you. There’s only one remedy: put your trust in the One who ate your dirt and died; the One who conquered death, that you might live. His name is Jesus.
This has been Fiction Friday with Lynniebeemuseoday.
I’ll probably delete this in the morning, or at the very least, write a parable about deleting it.
Lynniebeemuseoday 