A GARDENER'S GRIEF
A sincere gardener used to passionately love every plant and flower in the garden he tended. The owner of the garden was deeply impressed by the sincerity and dedication of the gardener. Every evening, the gardener used to pat the flowers as a gesture of love before he left the garden after finishing his work. One morning, as he returned to the garden, he found that the best flower was missing. It had been plucked and taken away by someone. He was very sad and angry. He shouted aloud, "Who has plucked my best flower? How cruel you are?"In reply, he heard a soft voice from a corner of the garden, "I plucked it. I needed it."
It was the voice of the owner of the garden.
The world is like a garden and every person is like a precious flower. But God, the owner of the garden, has the right to pluck the flowers of his choice. That is what happens when our dear ones die. Death is a moment of sorrow for everyone close to the dead person. In the sorrow we may cry like the gardener and complain to God why he has taken our dear ones away from us. But let us believe that one dies when he is called by God to His abode. Often the best flowers are plucked earlier.
"Our bodies will return to the dust of the earth, and the breath of life will go back to God, who gave it to us" {Ecclesiastes 12: 7}. "For we know that when this tent we live in - our body here on earth - is torn down, God will have a house in heaven for us to live in, a home He Himself has made, which will last for ever"{2 Corinthians 5: 1}.
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By Dr. Babu Philip, Professor, Cochin University of Science & Technology, Fine Arts Avenue, Kochi-682016, Kerala, India.This is Story No. 25 in this site. Please click ‘Older Post’ at the bottom of this page to read previous stories and click 'Newer Post' at the bottom of this page to read newer stories in this site. Please click on a word in the 'Story Themes' to read stories on that theme.
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