Shadow Puppet Storyteller

Monkey Arm in a Bottle

Okay, leave it to me for connecting an insight from a Wednesday church service with a segment from tonight's NOVA Science Now. Believe it or not, the reference to the monkey with its' arm stuck in a bottle is from the sermon. NOVA was reporting on paleontological evidence of an evolutionary link from tree shrew to the primate family. It gave a theoretical image of the lemur-like critters that may have flourished in fruit tree-laden areas, and to me in a very God-ordained way, quickly evolved the capabilities to survive in the environment they found themselves in. [To me, evolution too is a way in which "God provides" all that is needed].

The lesson to carry away from the monkey? By reaching its' arm into a narrow bottle for a bit of fruit -- being captured -- (aka focused on obtaining its' desire rather than its' freedom) when it cannot remove its' arm once it has grasped the fruit inside. There's a deep lesson for all of us in that one. I leave you to think it over.