As it’s St Fillan’s 900th anniversary I’m looking at Rev. Rutherford’s children’s address, where he talks about the history of the church, this one is from 11th Feb ’67. Here he is talks about Snowdrops.
I wonder why people don’t pick them, is it because we realise that they do not belong to us?
Imagine if you were to pick 20 snowdrops, that wouldn’t be noticed, but if all 200 people at church today did, that would be 2,000, and the beauty of the church yard would be spoiled.
This is the same a taking a short cut over the grass, if everybody did it there would be worn path which would spoil the appearance.
There are other more important applications, and as you live longer you will find are true. If you work in an office, factory or shop, and if one person is late, or tasking it easy or helping them selves, it my not seam to make much difference, but if everybody did it then it could ruin the business.
This helps us to understand why God gave us rules such as ‘Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness (i.e. tell lies), thou shalt not covet (be envious). It would appear that one instance would have little effect, but if everyone was to steal, lie, covet, the wold would be a more chaotic and miserable than it is now.
This can be summed up in the saying: Treat others as you would like them to treat you.