A story for every day...
The birds and the sheep.
One day a child saw some sheep whose thorns were pulling out wool as they passed by. Immediately he asked his father to have the bushes cut down. The father said nothing and told the child to sit on a mound and watch the little birds. After a moment, a few robins came fluttering around the bush and removing strands of wool for their nests. “Do you see,” said the father, “how this wool, without which the sheep are warm enough, is used to warm the poor naked birds in their nests. Do you still want me to pull up the bushes? – No,” said the child, “I have seen now how the good Lord cares for His creatures.”
At first glance many things in creation seem to us purposeless, even harmful, and on close inspection they are the work of perfect organization.
The spider’s web.
The holy priest Felix of Nole in Italy (+ 310), was once pursued by his enemies, who wanted to drag him to the torture. He took refuge in the hollow of an old ruined tower, but no sooner had he huddled there than a spider covered the crack in the wall that had served as his entrance with its web. As they passed, the persecutors thought of searching the old tower, but seeing the spider’s web, they passed over it, saying to themselves that it was impossible for their victim to have taken refuge there without tearing the web.
So the good Lord knows how to help without even working miracles. St. Paulin says very well: “Where God helps, a spider’s web becomes a wall; where God does not help, a wall is only a spider’s web.”
The firmament without pillars.
One day a German prince showed a foreign ambassador the beauties of his castle. The fool, who once followed the prince everywhere and had full freedom of speech, said to him: “Sire, do not boast too much about your palace. It is well worth being astonished at its solidity; it sits on good foundations and large pillars. Look at the sky instead. The Master who resides up there needs neither foundations nor pillars to support His immense vault. He supports it all by His will. Here is a Master to be respected!”
The most wonderful discoveries of men cannot be compared with the simplest creature of God. Besides, man with all his proud pretension, creates nothing, he can only discover and exploit.
