Luke 12:16-21
16 Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. 17 And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ 18 Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ 20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”
Meditation
Although “The Lorax” by Dr. Suess is about environmental consciousness, it aslo speaks to the parable of the Rich Fool from Luke. The Once-ler show us that greed may pay-off monetarily in the moment, but in the long run the Once-ler’s life was “demanded of him” in the form of financial ruin when the last Truffula Tree came down. Here is an excerpt from “The Lorax” with the scriptural allusions:
16 Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. 17 And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ 18 Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.
“I (the Once-ler) meant no harm. I most truly did not.
But I had to grow bigger. So bigger I got.
I biggered my factory. I biggered my roads.
I biggered my wagons. I biggered my loads
of the Thneeds I shipped out. I was shipping them forth
to the South! To the East! To the West! To the North!
I went right on biggering . . . selling more Thneeds.
And I biggered my money, which everyone needs.
I’m figgering on biggering
and BIGGERING
and BIGGERING
and BIGGERING,
turning more Truffula Trees into Thneeds
which everyone, EVERYONE, EVERYONE needs!
20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you.’
“And at that very moment, we heard a loud whack!
From outside in the fields came sickening smack
of an axe on a tree. Then we heard the tree fall.
The very last Truffula Tree of them all!
No more trees. No more Thneeds. No more work to be done.
Now all that was left ‘neath the bad smelling-sky was my big empty factory . . .”