The Little Red Hen

How many rugged individualists does it take to change a light bulb? The obvious answer is one.

The correct answer is more like several hundred people, maybe even several thousand. Do-it-yourself types actually believe they did it on their own. However, there were many people who laid the groundwork to make “changing the light bulb” possible. In the case of the individualist above, first there were the people who mined the sand for the glass, and others who turned the glass into a bulb. Then there were the people who made the light fixture (from raw materials someone else mined and fashioned) to screw the light bulb into. Eventually somebody either gave or sold the light bulb to him, and so on, and so on. It’s obvious that the individualist had help, but if you answered “one,” you are not alone. It was a leading question. I answered “one” as well, and rather quickly too.

What had shaped my way of thinking so that I could entertain such an answer, let alone blurt it out without pause? It was the little red hen! I was introduced and endeared to a character known as the little red hen back in pre-school. She, in the midst of a group of lazy and pre-occupied friends, accomplished many difficult chores all by herself. The hen wanted to plant some wheat and asked her friends for help. They were either too lazy or too busy to help her. In disappointment, she told them, “I’ll do it myself!” When it came time to harvest the wheat, the same scenario enfolded. She harvested by herself. She ground and milled the wheat into flour by herself, and then baked the flour into bread by herself, because her friends were still either too lazy or too “busy” with other things. Not surprisingly though, when her friends began to smell the aroma of fresh baked bread coming from her kitchen, they all offered to help her eat the bread. To such offers she replied, “No. I’ll do it myself!” From start to finish, the little red hen did it all by herself.

That story planted the belief in my mind that I could accomplish much from start to finish by myself. It was inspiring. I came to a conclusion of sorts that I could streamline the process by just skipping the part about asking for help. After all, it didn’t avail much for the hen, and history seemed full of celebrated people who only relied on themselves. The idea of self-reliance seemed normal, noble, even good; and “self-made” men and women seemed to be everywhere.

It turns out self-made people are not everywhere. The truth is, they are nowhere. Everyone is helped along the way from the beginning when God started the whole deal by creating each of us.

God had said of creation that it was either good or very good. Then shortly after God created Adam, He said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.” (Genesis 2:18) This was the first time that God declared that something was not good, and a very different reality began to take shape in my life as a result of reading those two short sentences. The implications were profound. The man whom God had made, the one He placed in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it, needed a helper. Adam’s need for help was not a mistake on God’s part, nor a result of a fallen world. God does not make mistakes, and the fall was yet to occur. God not only created Adam, but He created him to need help.

This truth exposed a carefully crafted pride in my life, a pride that I had been nurturing since pre-school. It was a pride further fueled by a parade of “self-made” men and women led by a little red hen, a parade that I eagerly watched and desired to march in. It was a pride constructed so I might avoid the hurt of being rejected, just like that little red hen. It became obvious that the pride I was holding onto was preventing me from experiencing a reality that God intended for me. It was a reality that involved being helped by others - others that He designed just right for me. Knowing this truth and not living it was not only “not good,” it was actually a sin (James 4:17).

Northwoods Musings is an instrument that God continues to use to teach and re-shape me. At its inception, I had the attitude that I would do the Musings myself. God, in His wisdom and unequalled generosity, gave me wonderful help - help that at first I reluctantly accepted, but could not do without. I’m grateful to those who help make my musings a reality, and I thank God for pointing out that I needed help in the first place. Sure, I knew God made me to help others. Of equal importance, I found out that He made me to be helped by others as well. He made you the same way too.

Grace to you.

Dave Paukner