Bedtime, Aesop's Fables, and Grace

My 6 year old needs to present one of Aesop’s Fables to her classmates tomorrow. So at dinner, we reviewed some of them. The tortoise and the hare was too familiar. The boy who cried wolf was so last year. Sour grapes was too short. So still searching for the right story, we continued the conversation at bedtime. We landed on the grasshopper and the ant.

You know the story. The diligent ant works hard all summer while the lazy grasshopper lies in the shade sipping on lemonade. Come winter, the ant has a warm house with plenty of food while the grasshopper is hungry and cold on the outside looking in. Moral of the story: It’s good to work hard and plan for the future.

I could tell my daughter didn’t like how the story ended. “Did the ant let him in?” she asked. Only to be followed up by, “Did he die out there in the cold?”

After telling the story, my little girl wanted to act it out. She insists on acting out every story. Of course I had to be the grasshopper. But as we got to the end, she paused our off-Broadway play to ask if she could change the ending. She wanted to let the grasshopper in.

Now I’m such a nerd that I felt the need to preserve the integrity of Aesop’s authorial intent. You can’t just change the story. I explained how our choices have consequences. I even got into a long-winded lecture where I told her that she needed to be an-ant-of-a-student cause otherwise she wouldn’t get into college or get a job along with all the other grasshoppers. I know. I have problems. My parents are Indian. It’s not my fault.

My little girl listened patiently. After my lecture bored even me, I asked her why she wanted to change the story. She hesitated and told me that she wanted to let the grasshopper in and give him food and a blanket. I consented and told her we could call it Hannah’s Fables. I asked her, “And what’s the moral of Hannah’s Fable?”

“Grace.”

I asked her what she meant. She explained that grace was that the grasshopper got to come in and eat food and be warm, “even though he didn’t deserve it.”

Funny. I spent most of my life reading the Bible like it was one of the stories from Aesop’s Fables. Every story had a moral. My daughter is reading Aesop’s Fables like it was one of the stories from the Bible. Every story needs grace.

Photo Credit: Geraldkelly.com