The Original Boy Scout

I love this time of Summer. The days grow later and the shadows grow longer.

As I sit here on my patio the squirrels are busy hunting, gathering, and burying their pecans. The birds are busy gathering berries from the trees. The mud-dauber is busy building his mud hut on my ceiling fan. (And the sports page is happily full of pre-season college football again.)

The world is preparing itself for the coming fall.

This preparation is instinctual. No one has told these creatures colder days and darker nights are ahead – get ready. They have no calendar warning that there are only 29 more days until Autumn.

No, what they do they do because they know in their hearts they must be prepared for whatever lies ahead.

Boy scouts know this. In fact, they know it so well they have it ingrained as their motto “Be Prepared.” They learn everything from archaeology and archery to citizenship, climbing, emergency care to plumbing and soil and water conservation to traffic safety.

It takes a lot of dedication, sacrifice and work to learn all a boy scout needs to learn and be fully prepared. Which makes being one so great. There is a great deal of unknown out in the world but the boy scout, especially one who has earned the First Aid badge, is well able to handle what is ahead and help those in trouble.

I know a boy scout who has earned His preparedness badge. In fact, He didn’t earn it for Himself, He earned it for each and every one of us. It’s a badge we all get to wear. This boy scout, the Original Boy Scout, knows there is an uncertain future for us dead ahead but He has prepared for it. And the twist here is that He doesn’t prepare for Himself. He prepares for us.

Jesus knows exactly what lies ahead for us and He knows we don’t. He knows that it will be scary for us. So, like a proper boy scout, He calms us. He tells us not to be “troubled.” That He has gone to His Father’s house which has many rooms and has gone to “prepare a place” for us. (John 14:1-4)

I don’t know about you but I love knowing that I’m prepared – and prepared for. That when necessary I just pick up and go. My place is prepared and ready. My Father is waiting for me.

Our Original Boy Scout did all the heavy lifting of the preparing, the sacrificing, the merit badge earning. We just do the receiving, the believing, the trusting, the loving.

It really is a remarkable trade considering we do so little in the equation to get our preparedness merit badge.

Just ask the hard working squirrels, birds and mud-daubers.

~