Stone Soup

Do you remember the old folk story called “Stone Soup"? I was about four years old when I first heard this culinary classic read by Captain Kangaroo. I can still hear his voice giving life to each line.

The Youtube window below is the book Bob Keeshan read from but features a different storyteller. It's well done, but I would love to hear it again as I did as a child.The story has stayed with me all my life.

Some think it is about three clever soldiers and a naive village. Such a summation misses the greater lesson or "moral."  This story is about our natural tendency to put our own needs above others, to "play poor" in order to avoid being generous, to settle for surviving in isolation rather than thriving in community.  “Stone Soup” teaches us that when everyone puts “skin in the game” toward a goal that serves the interests of the whole group, it’s not just a better plan--it's the best plan and a much better way to reflect God the father, as illustrated in Matthew 7:9-11 (ESV)

"Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?  … how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!"

I hope you enjoy this tale about a village that had “nothing to give,” but through the contagious power of joining others willing to put "skin in the game," they set a table fit for a king.