There is no telling how many times we've heard the story. It could be a parable about building safety codes, or Stranger Danger, Medieval castle-storming techniques, or even a shaving commercial “Not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin!” However we might put our own modern spin on it, it's been a popular little fable for a long, long time, told around camp fires, picked up by Looney Tunes, meddled with by Archie Campbell (The Pee Little Thrigs and the Wad Bolf), and now me. Something that popular has to have a universal appeal, something that speaks to us in a significant way, and something that reveals some Truths about us as we treasure it. Here are a few that occurred to me.
First, each Piglet was looking for a Home. Like most of us, they recognized their need for shelter, but in trying to build something more lasting it speaks to the human longing for a Place to Belong. Our innate desire points to something lacking in us, that in my experience is not satisfied with physical building materials. No matter how pleasant we make our dwellings, we find an ongoing hunger for lasting comfort and security, which will only be satisfied in one Place:
Hebrews 11:10 For [Abraham] was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
Next, I saw that we can be attacked and destroyed for no other reason than that we are vulnerable. The Pigs had no defense against the Wolf. In one on-one-combat, they were quickly and efficiently overcome. Notice, they didn't go looking for trouble, He came looking for them. Their defense was revealed to be far too flimsy to stand in the day of trouble. According to worldly principles, so is ours, and that's why we need a Better Plan:
The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. Psalm 27:1-2
Now that Third Pig, he had a Home that resisted the frontal attack that the Wolf had used to devastating effect to that point. In the story, the Wolf then tried several ways to trick the Pig into giving up his shelter, but each time the Pig outsmarted him, and finally overcame him by resisting his temptations. I'm not sure how boiling and eating your Enemy would work for us...well, knowing that our Enemy has no plans to live peaceably with us and is only proposing compromises to keep seeking a way to get inside our defenses to destroy us ought to warn us against trusting his schemes and keep us alert.
1 Peter 5:8 Be serious! Be alert! Your adversary the Devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.
Are there any more? Sure, probably several that haven't occurred to me. Let me know what you come up with! But let me leave you with “happily ever after”. Most modern versions of fables and fairy tales include that line, and it's a reminder that deep down, we want the Happy Ending, and for everyone in Christ, there really is one:
In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. John 14:2-3
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