Realizing his error and fearful of being chastised for his haste, he decided to fill the pack with useful and beautiful items he found along his way. ""Perhaps he will praise my ingenuity and careful choices," he thought. First, he picked a bouquet of exquisite, delicate blossoms which bloomed high on a hillside. He reasoned their difficulty to posses gave them value sure to be appreciated. Next, he gathered nuts that had fallen from a tree onto a soft, shaded piece of land- certain their innards were fully intact and were therefore fresh and nutritious. Finally, he was ecstatic to find a perfect golden nugget tucked beneath a rock in the stream. Quite satisfied with his array of gifts and confident that the wise man would praise his finds, he hurried to the town to bestow his choice bounty upon the needy.
His arrival was greeted by a bent over, old woman whose gap-toothed smile expressed her excitement and anticipation of the package he was to deliver. The young man triumphantly held up his backpack with an air of importance and began to withdraw the items one by one. The woman's smile faded to a look of confusion and mistrust. "Are you sure this was sent by the wise man from the next town over?" she hesitantly asked. The young man adamantly pointed to the flowers and described the sheer height he ad been conquered to pick them. He gestured to the fine array of nuts that had been gathered and vowed they were of the finest quality for miles around. His final attempt to convince this seemingly ungrateful woman was to display the golden nugget in such a way as to let the sun glint off the precious mineral and dazzle the woman into being impressed. Surely messages of admiration and immense gratitude would filter back to the wise man and thereby reveal his own cleverness.
By now, the woman's smile had been replaced by an air of disappointment, but she nonetheless motioned for the young man to follow her so that he could deliver the package to the townsman for whom it had been intended. Slowly following the woman's hobbled gait he finally reached the door of a pitifully small, decrepit dwelling. His chest puffed with pride as he envisioned the gratitude from these poor people. He fully intended to let the wise man have all credit believing his own reward would be the sage's praise for representing him with such beauty and riches. The woman opened the door, revealing a dank and dark single room with a bed in the center. As the young man's eyes adjusted to the darkness he noticed the form a frail man lying in the bed lifting a withered hand to beckon his visitor closer. "Sir," the old woman addressed the young man, "please bend to my husband's ear for he is blind and can not see." Then she spoke loudly to her husband to describe the blossoms his eyes would never see, the nuts that his long ago lost teeth would never crunch as he could only take in liquid these days. She held the gold that had excited the young man with it's promise of status and wealth against her husband's gnarled fingers while she feebly described it as a yellow rock hoping her husband would find some joy or understanding in these odd gifts selected by the wise man. The dying old man drew in, what was evidently, one of his last few breaths in order to acknowledge the gifts his wife had valiantly tried to describe with enthusiasm.
The old woman bid their guest goodbye with a sad smile as her husband labored to breathe behind her.
The young man journeyed home and his thoughts were a jumble of confusion. Feeling he had failed his mission miserably he sought the wise man upon his return. "Please," he implored the wise man, "tell me what you would have sent to this man who could neither see nor eat. What could have made a difference to this couple? Was the package supposed to be medicine or perhaps money for a new house? Why were they disappointed with what I provided? Please, I must know." The wise man slowly reached into his pocket and held out a simple piece of paper upon which these words were written:
"Peace is coming- don't lose hope. You shall be in Paradise soon. You shall have no more tears, no more pain. You are not alone and you are loved very much."
The young man thought back to his time with the dying man and his crippled wife and was flooded with embarrassment as he realized how utterly useless his choice of gifts had been. He was saddened to think he had robbed this needy couple of the comfort they surely desired and would have found is those wise words during their most difficult hour.
At a loss for words of his own, the young man, who had sought to impress the wise man with his own brand of wisdom, realized his folly... he had chosen gifts to be given in another's name based on his own perspective and priorities.
Lord, help us to seek You in the beginning of each new day so that we can receive all You have intended for this day's journey (GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD). May we humbly seek Your wisdom so we may honestly offer Your gifts instead of our beliefs of what is needed. Dear Creator, You made all- You know all! Help us to trust Your choice of people we encounter, hardships we are to endure, gifts we are to share. Thank you for allowing us to be your hands and feet. Give us courage and strength for our daily journey~ to go where You know souls await hope. ~Amen+
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