Author Unknown
Once there was a king who had presented his daughter, the princess,
with a beautiful diamond necklace. The necklace was stolen and his
people in the kingdom searched everywhere but could not find it. Some
said a bird may have stolen it. The king then asked them all to search
for it and put a reward for $50,000 for anyone who found it.
One day a clerk was walking home along a river next to an industrial
area. This river was completely polluted and filthy and smelly. As he
was walking, the clerk saw a shimmering in the river and when he
looked, he saw the diamond necklace. He decided to try and catch it so
that he could get the $50,000 reward. He put his hand in the filthy,
dirty river and grabbed at the necklace, but some how missed it and
didn't catch it. He took his hand out and looked again and the
necklace was still there. He tried again, this time he walked in the
river and dirtied his pants in the filthy river and put his whole arm
in to catch the necklace.
But strangely, he still missed the necklace! He came out and started
walking away, feeling depressed. Then again he saw the necklace, right
there. This time he was determined to get it, no matter what. He
decided to plunge into the river, although it was a disgusting thing
to do as the river was polluted, and his whole body would become
filthy. He plunged in, and searched everywhere for the necklace and
yet he failed. This time he was really bewildered and came out feeling
very depressed that he could not get the necklace that would get him
$50,000. Just then a saint who was walking by, saw him, and asked him
what was the matter. The clerk didn't want to share the secret with
the saint, thinking the saint might take the necklace for himself, so
he refused to tell the saint anything.
But the saint could see this man was troubled and being compassionate,
again asked the clerk to tell him the problem and promised that he
would not tell anyone about it. The clerk mustered some courage and
decided to put some faith in the saint. He told the saint about the
necklace and how he tried and tried to catch it, but kept failing. The
saint then told him that perhaps he should try looking upward, toward
the branches of the tree, instead of in the filthy river. The clerk
looked up and true enough, the necklace was dangling on the branch of
a tree. He had been trying to capture a mere reflection of the real
necklace all this time.
Moral of the story:
Material happiness is just like the filthy, polluted river; because it
is a mere reflection of the TRUE happiness in the spiritual world. We
don't achieve the happiness we are looking for, no matter how hard we
endeavor in the material life. Instead we should look upwards, toward
God, who is the source of real happiness, and stop chasing after the
reflection of this happiness in the material world. This spiritual
happiness is the only thing that can satisfy us completely.
May the Lord help us LOOK UP TO HIM.
The Word:
"There is no force in nature that is equal to the power of prayer. The
law of gravitation holds the planets in their orbits, and links the
sun to all the spheres that circle round him. But prayer has now made
gravitation itself cease to exert its energy: 'Sun, stand thou still
upon Gibeon,' said Joshua, who had first spoken to the Lord about the
matter (Joshua 10:12)." "All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk
leads only to poverty."
Proverbs 14:23
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