Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Farming Parable



This is a parable that my grandfather always tells me, and I think is worthwhile to share -

Four young men sit beside their dying father. The old man, with his last breathe, tells them that there is a huge buried treasure in the family fields. The sons crowd around him crying, "Where, where?" but it is too late. The day after the funeral and for many days to come, the young men go out with their picks and shovels and turn the soil, digging deeply into the ground from one end of each field to the other. They find nothing and, bitterly disappointed, abandon the search.

The next season the farm has its best harvest ever.

This speaks to our limited understanding of the nature of gifts the that are in store for us - I like it the idea of doing hard work and not even being able to fathom the ultimate results.

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