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Something to make you think. From my friend, Jim.
Things Aren't Always What They Seem
Two angels, disguised as poor travelers, stopped and asked to pass the night
at the home of a wealthy family. The mistress rudely refused to speak to
them, but ordered the servants to let them have a small space in the cold
stable.
As the younger angel made their bed of straw on the hard floor, he watched
his older companion repair a hole in the rough stone wall.
"I'm sorry!" he exclaimed, "But, I don't understand you! Why, on earth,
would you want to help such an uncaring woman as she who owns this place?"
The elder angel smiled sadly and said, "Just sleep now, as we can."
The next night, the pair came to rest at the house of a destitute tenant
farmer and his wife. After sharing the little food they had, the couple
insisted the travelers take their bed to rest more comfortably, and went to
sleep in the barn.
The next morning, just as the sun was rising, the angels started down the
road. Not far down the road, they heard a pitiful wailing. Turning to look
back, they witnessed the farmer and his good wife grieving. Their one horse
lay dead in the field.
"Why? How could you let this happen?" asked the younger angel, incensed at
the callousness of his elder road mate. "That miserly rich woman had
everything, and you repaired her wall," he accused, "But you do nothing for
this poor farm couple that shared the little they had with us? How could you
let that horse die?"
"Things aren't what they seem," the older angel replied. In the stable of
the mansion, gold was hidden in that wall. The owner, obsessed with greed
and incapable of sharing, shall have it no more.
I turned the gold to stone and sealed the wall."
"Last night, as we slept in the farmer's bed, the Angel of Death came for
his wife, who had been starving herself to feed her husband, and would not
let him know how weak she had become. I gave Him the horse instead."
"They are still young. He wasn't much of a farmer. Now, they will move to
town where this man will become an apprentice blacksmith. He will
eventually have his own thriving business. And, he will help others along
the way."
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Things aren't always what they seem.
If we look back on bad times,
there is almost always
Something good born of them
that we wouldn't trade back.
When life seems to be at its worst,
trust that Everything will
eventually prove to be for the best.
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