A Short Story

I was a kid when my mother told me a story about understanding what or who God is. She had heard this from a priest at a mass before I was born. It goes like this:

There was a man on a beach staring our to sea. The day was bright with wispy fog rolling on the tops of some waves as they slowly made their way in to break on the beach. The man was deep in thought with a bit of a grimace as he fought with his brain to understand what God is, who God is, what are His plans. He’d been sitting in the same spot for hours with his clamming shovel beside him, rapt in his own little world as he fought with his mind.

So intense was this man that he failed to see a stranger standing next to him. This fair looking young man had evidently walked up on him completely unnoticed, so deep was the mans concentration. When he noticed the stranger he was startled to realize that he was even there.

The stranger asked, “What is it you are trying to understand that has you so closed off to all else?” The man looked up, shrugged and decided to speak to him.

“I am trying to figure out who and what God is and what God is thinking.” When he spoke the words he felt sheepish to tell a stranger his deepest thoughts. The stranger knelt down beside him and said,”Take your shovel and dig a large hole in the sand. Then, take your bucket down to the shore and fill it with sea water. Bring the full bucket back and empty it in the hole you just dug and do it over and over until you get all the ocean in that hole.”

The man looked at the stranger as though the stranger were daft.”That can’t be done,” said the man, “that is impossible!”

The stranger looked at the man and said, “You can fill that hole with the entire ocean before you will understand who God is.” The stranger smiled the warmest smile at the man that the man had ever seen. Then, the stranger disappeared.

Point made?

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