Pastor Freed used this colorful little quote today in his blog, Jack’s Winning Words – “An ungrateful man is like a hog eating acorns under a tree, but never looking up to see where they come from,” (Timothy Dexter)
How easy it is to be like the unthinking hog in Freed’s quote. Even worse than that, how foolish it is for man to ascribe what he has to his own efforts. As bad as it is to say to oneself, “I found the tree and gathered the nuts, so my success is of my own doing”; man takes the next step and cuts down the tree for it’s wood and then wonders why he no longer has the acorns to eat that it provided. At least the hog did not cut down the tree.
Freed also mentioned in his post that it is good to have a little prayer at the table when we eat to remind us where the food really comes from. Most table prayers that I have heard also ask for forgiveness for whatever transgressions one might have committed against others. When said at the dinner table, a short prayer sort of cleans up whatever messes one has made during the day.
It is certainly easier to forgive the hog for not caring or wondering about where the acorns come from. We do not attribute a level of intelligence above that needed for subsistence to most animals. Man, however, has been blessed with a level of intelligence and awareness that allows him to question and wonder about all things. That same level of intelligence inevitably brings him face-to-face with God as the only plausible answer to the questions about his own existence that he cannot otherwise explain. The ultimate conclusion to all of his conjecture about his existence is that he did not invent God, God invented him. Upon reaching that conclusion, a man becomes grateful.
So, eat the acorns that you are given, but look up from time to time and be grateful to the God who provides the tree under which you are fed. You know where those acorns came from.
Have a great and grateful day and weekend.
NormsMilfordBlog 
Le’s try to avoid doing foolish things today!