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It was a hot day in June just outside a southern town, in a small southern
state, near it's southernmost border. The bright sun was unhindered by any
clouds, the heat untouched by the wind.
At the hottest part of the day, just after the noon hour there sat three
beans on a small rock by the pathway. One was a small black bean. One was
a large red kidney bean. And one was a spotted pinto bean.
There were no other beans as far as the eye could see or the ears could
hear. But of course, beans have no real eyes and no real ears, so they
can't hear much or see very far at all.
The little rock on which the beans sat was very hot. And the beans felt
the heat of the day working its way into their innermost hearts.
"I'm soaking up heat like a sponge soaks up water." said the little black
bean.
"What's a sponge?" asked the pinto bean.
"I know what you mean." said the kidney bean. "If I get any hotter, I
think I will pop right open!"
"So, uh... what's a sponge, anyway?" asked the pinto bean.
"I don't know if beans can really pop," said the black bean, "but I feel
like I will certainly die, if I have to endure this heat much longer."
"Is it something like a worm or more like a tree?" asked the pinto bean.
No grass moved near the path. No dust was stirred. The air all around the
beans on the rock just sat there, perfectly still in the midday heat. Not
even a cricket made a sound. And the frogs in a nearby pond were all
silent in the heat.
Just heat. That's all there was. Intense heat and radiant heat and more
heat. It was unbroken, unending and larger than anything else in the whole
world. And it kept growing and increasing. Or so it seemed to the beans.
The heat bothered the pinto bean. But something else bothered him more. He
kept trying to crack the mystery of the sponge. What could it be? All he
knew was that it soaked up water.
The sun kept beating down, and the sky held in the heat, and the air
refused to move any of the heat away. The rock got hotter, and the beans
felt the heat grow larger and deeper and heavier -- to the point of
crushing out all life.
"That's it," said the black bean. "I'm dying. I know I'm dying. I just
can't take any more of this."
"Whew! You and me both." said the kidney bean. I think my heart is
shriveling up inside."
Out of the blue, the pinto bean asked, "Is a sponge very big, do you
think? What color is it?"
And soon it was true. The very heart of the black bean died inside from
the intense heat. It was just too much heat for him to take. And soon
after that, the kidney bean also died. The pinto bean was so busy trying
to guess what a sponge was that he didn’t notice that the other beans had
stopped talking.
Another hour went by, and then another. Soon a small cloud drifted over.
As it passed between sun and the ground, a sudden gust of wind hit the
pinto bean, knocking him off the rock into the soft dirt between a few
blades of grass nearby. And then another cloud drifted by overhead, and
then more clouds gathered.
Soon it began to rain. Not a heavy rain, but a light afternoon rain. And a
tiny puddle of water formed around the pinto bean on the ground. The water
was so cooling, so soothing that the pinto bean soaked up some of it right
away.
That night, more rain came, and the heavy drops splashing on the pinto
bean, and all around him, soon covered him in mud. By the next day, he was
buried under a thin layer of soil, safe from the glaring heat of the
summer sun. And being so comfortable, tucked away in the dark as he was,
he drifted off to sleep, still wondering what a sponge could be.
As for the kidney bean and the black bean, they quickly rotted away,
having died in the heat of an afternoon. But it was not really the heat of
a summer day that killed them at all. It was their own response to the
heat. For some reason, they had allowed the idea of the terrible heat to
overcome them. And they died because they convinced themselves that no
bean could possibly endure such torment.
The pinto bean never did find out what a sponge was. But after a short
while he popped open in the moist, dark soil and began to grow into a
whole new plant. A curly stem pushed out and then up, and a couple of
strong green leaves unfolded – leaves that were hungry for the sun's hot
rays. And the plant just kept growing and growing.
Before long, there were lots of tender young beans taking shape on the new
plant. And they developed faster than anyone might think possible. And as
they grew into intelligent little beans in their own right, they all
seemed infected with the same tiny question: What on earth is a sponge,
any way?
It isn’t always what happens that makes us weaker or stronger, wiser or
bitter, but how we choose to respond.
Jesus said, "...so that you may be children of your Father
in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and
sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous." Matthew 5:45
© 2004 Jim Sutton
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