Do you remember the story of the Three Sillies? I remember hearing or reading this one when I was young. Here’s my version of it:
A family of three, parents and son, live in a modest cottage. One day they receive an unexpected visitor and as is their custom, invite him to stay for supper. The parents send junior down to the wine cellar to get a bottle of wine to add to the table. He enters the cellar, grabs the bottle of wine and turns to leave, but notices with sudden horror that an axe had been thrust up into the wood above him and was hanging from the ceiling right over the door. He contemplates what a close escape he has had from instant death, for what if the axe had fallen on him? But now he dare not leave, for he does not know how securely the axe is implanted in the wood – any movement he makes could jar it loose! So he sits in the cellar afraid to move.
The parents meanwhile are entertaining their guest but becoming uncomfortable at the amount of time it’s taking their son to bring the wine. The husband sends his wife to find out what is causing the delay. She enters the wine cellar and begins harping on her son for his laziness – he has the wine; why has he not brought it upstairs? Junior points to the axe, explains the dire dilemma and she sits down next to him, caught up in the same fear.
The father continues to talk to the guest and although the guest says nothing, he knows that they are both wondering why a simple task is taking so long, especially with two people now applying themselves to it. The father makes a weak joke about how perhaps his wife and son are in the cellar drinking the wine instead of bringing it up. He excuses himself and assures the long-suffering guest that it will be just a moment before they all return.
The father bursts into the wine cellar in a rage – don’t they realize how much embarrassment they are causing him? “What has come over you?!” He thunders. Wife and son both point to the axe and urge him to join them on the bench, marveling at the fact that all three of them have escaped the fate of having the axe fall upon them when entering the room. The three of them sit together, trembling with fear, and heartsick that they are essentially imprisoned in the wine cellar.
The guest sees now that there is something mysterious going on in this house. He decides to investigate the matter himself. He goes down the same short stairway that he has seen the other three disappear into. As he approaches the wine cellar, all three of his hosts cry out, “Don’t come in or you will certainly die!” He peers into the room and they point to the axe, wringing their hands with despair at this symbol of impending doom. The guest reaches up, pulls the axe down from the ceiling and says, “If I had gone on a quest to find the three silliest people in the land, I could not have found any to compare with you. Come out of there and let us have our supper, for all this delay has sharpened my appetite.”
And the Three Sillies sheepishly follow him out of the room.
THE END
It’s a modern parable, really. We can all read it and see how foolish it is to fear something that might happen instead of grabbing hold of it by faith and refusing to let it have power over you. I don’t suppose I had any real axes in my ceiling until my sister died of cancer a couple years after my husband and I were married. And just like that, I was in the cellar of fear, looking up at an axe named “cancer,” certain it was going to fall on me. Anytime I had a health ailment that wasn’t easily diagnosed or the symptoms of which could have seemed like cancer, I sat on that bench, moaning and crying, sometimes going so far as to envision my funeral. I give you permission to laugh at that – it’s no better than the Three Sillies. I’ve added other axes to the ceiling over the years: pain, rejection, dementia…
But guess what? That guest in their home? I know him. He is the Fear Destroyer, the Death Killer, the Axe Remover. He died and overcame death, “that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” He comes down to my cellar, reaches up, takes down the axes and chides me lovingly for my foolishness. He releases me from my bondage. So I follow Him out of the room. I follow Him wherever He wants to take me. And if the axe should strike, it has His permission and cleaves me with His love.
This has been Monday Meanderings with Lynniebeemuseoday.
I shall strike down this blog post with an axe in the morning.
Lynniebeemuseoday 