Once upon a time, in a world faraway-yes, this is a fairy tale-there was a land of lovely lakes and rivers. In summer people swam and fished and boated and snorkelled and whitewater-rafted. In winter they cut out holes in the ice to fish and of course they skated and played ice hockey. Visitors to the country all remarked on the fresh sparkling water that seemed to be everywhere, the wonderful fish in the markets and the healthy children, so at home in the water and on the ice. Life was fairly simple, with most people making their living by farming or fishing.
One day a big businessman came in a stretch limo and began saying how sorry he felt for the people of this country because they weren't urbanized or industrialized. He started to make some changes.
To make a long story short-yes, you guessed it!-after only a few years, there were factories and cities everywhere. Many of the ponds were filled in to allow for more buildings.
Although people said, "We'll make sure to preserve most of the ponds and we won't touch the lakes," that's not what happened, of course. Still more industrial sites were called for, so they filled in all the ponds and then they started on the lakes... Soon the lovely rivers and streams were polluted by the factory waste and the fish could no longer be eaten. The land began to dry up and crack and the topsoil blew away.
At last there was only one little pond left. Small children came from all over the land to look at it because they had never known the lakes and rivers of sparkling water. But the old folks stood by in great sadness. They looked as withered up as the dry lakes and river beds of their once lovely land.
After the last drops of water disappeared from the last pond, a strange thing happened. One hundred very elderly men and women ringed the pond in silence, their eyes and mouths drooped in great sorrow. Soon another hundred joined them in the circle. No one spoke but, very softly, the first old man who had come to the site began to cry. As his sobs grew louder, others joined in and their wailing could be heard for miles. In a day or so more people came to encircle the dry pond. And they too sobbed...
All around the pond bed the sobs rose and the tears fell-hundreds, then thousands, then millions of tears poured down the furrowed cheeks and onto the parched ground until-yes, you guessed it!-a pure crystal pond began to appear again!
The very old man who had first begun to sob at the pond died of a broken heart before he ever saw the new pond take shape. No one knew his name, but as they began to clean up their rivers and reclaim their lakes, the people spoke in hushed tones about the wonderful thing he had done. Eventually they decided to pull down the statue of the big businessman and erect a monument to the old man.
Now as I said, this is just a fairy tale, but I thought you'd like to hear what they wrote beneath the statue. The inscription read: "To our Sobbing Saviour: thank you for dying crying." And of course they built a church on the spot because no one doubted that God was there.
Source: Found in Catherine Hammond, Stories to Hold an Audience (Millennium
Books, 1994)
Applications: environment, creation, ecology, repentance, God's presence