The Saga of Humpty Dumpty

Humpty Dumpty was a Mother Goose nursery rhyme published in 1810. Maybe it is time for all of us to revisit the point of that little jingle. Humpty was an anthropomorphized egg, who sat on a wall, had a great fall, and couldn’t be put back together at all. Were these nursery rhymes just little clever poems to occupy a child’s mind, or were they subtle ways to give some wise instruction to our children?

Humpty Dumpty made the point that if a personified egg sits on a wall, and falls off the wall, it will be smashed into hundreds of pieces and no one will be able to put the egg back together again. The story was a call for foresight, because re-assembling an egg is a lot more difficult than preventing its downfall would have been. It was a way of saying that it is a lot better to avoid some situations rather than to try to restore a life after it gets crushed by those situations.

This is an important bit of advice for all of us today. It is easier to spend time building and maintaining our relationships, than it is to repair them after we have neglected them so severely. It is better to avoid destructive habits, than it is to try to deal with all the destructive ramifications that flow from participation in destructive things. It is easier to be nice, than humiliating ourselves when we treat others poorly, and then having to further humiliate ourselves by admitting that we had been jerks, and need to ask for forgiveness.

It is easier to study diligently now, than to flunk out and later have to try to overcome years of bad grades and habits. It is better to choose our friends wisely and be less popular, than to run with the wrong crowd and end up ruining our lives and reputations for years to come. It is better to say “no” to an affair, than to partake in the affair and lose the family we love.

It is easier to prevent problems, than it is to correct the aftermath of our debacles. So many of us get into trouble by jumping into some situation, or off of some wall, without even thinking through the ramifications of such an action. If we would think through the natural consequences of making this or that decision, before we make the decision, we would save others and ourselves a whole lot of grief. If Humpty had thought through the risk of a semi-round object’s ability to remain sitting on a wall, the odds are he would not have done so at all.

In the book of Micah in the Old Testament, the people were asking what it was they could do to please God. What could they do to remedy their sins? The answer is similar to what we have been discussing. “No, O people, the LORD has told you what is good, and this is what He requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God” (cf. Micah 6:8 NLT).

God’s reply was that it is a lot better to not sin to start with, than to try to correct the consequences of our sins. The problem is not that we do not know what is good to do, it is that we do not choose to do the good! It is a lot wiser to not decimate your life through destructive decisions, than to have to rebuild your life after you demolish it.

So, if we want to save ourselves a lot of grief, we are instructed to do in the beginning that which we know is good or right. We are to be merciful in our relationships with others, and to live day by day in a humble relationship with God. To walk with God is to relate to God and dialogue with God all through the day. It is to talk to God, listen to God, and do what God tells us is the right thing to do in any particular situation we find ourselves in. God most clearly speaks to us through the Bible.

The more problems we prevent by wise living, the fewer times we will need to use costly repair kits or restoration provisions. However, in the New Testament we learn that when we do fall off of the wall, we have a Savior in Jesus, who really can put us back together again. It is not a painless process, but it is now a possible one!

I encourage you to walk with God, rather than roll off the wall.