Tie Up Your Sheep

I bought a sandwich baggieful of mismatched teeny Christmas ornaments for $1 at the Thrift Store today. When I came home, I set up a wee creche at the base of the tabletop cone of sparkles, also $1, also from the Thrift Store.

Someone had wound gold wire around the sheep so it could be hung on a tree. Though the sheep looks like a fiery-eyed prophet, possibly named Cujo, the care with which it is tied up is worthy of entry in my file Humanity Is Not All Bad.

It's unrelated, but it reminded me of this saying of the prophet Muhammad, a saying I've always liked:
"Trust in God, but tie up your camel." 

You know, don't bug the deity with the stuff you can do for yourself; or, don't think being all one-with-the-divine excuses you from mundane tasks. 

A Buddhist saying along those lines is, "After enlightenment, the laundry."

The version I heard in the Catholic church is, a guy prays his whole life to win the lottery. He never does, and when he dies and goes to Heaven, he confronts God, saying God should have rewarded his faith.

God says, "I would have, but you never bought a lottery ticket."