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Pastimes : Ask God II -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alan Markoff who wrote (208)	4/12/1998 11:31:00 PM
From: Graystone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 253

The Angel of the Harvest Reprinted without permission from The Angels of the Earth by Wilson Macdonald The Angel of the Harvest There once was a gardener whose heart was full of love, whose mind was wisdom and whose hand scattered kindness. But this husbandman was the only gardener in a great valley whose soil was sterile, year after year. He faithfully prepared his ground and he sowed the choicest seeds in it, and he watered it with his own hand, and yet when summer came his acres were almost always barren, while the land of all his fellow gardeners were heavy with the products of the earth. Year after year his acres produced only enough to keep him from starvation. Yet, he sowed his seeds as carefully each spring, and watered them as faithfully as he had done at first. Finally he called in an expert and bade him make a test of the soil on his lands. The essayer found the loam to be the richest in the valley and he complimented the gardener on the quality of his seeds and on his expert husbandry. The man did not complain for many years although the temptation to do so was becoming greater with each disappointing crop from his soil. He could not understand why his neighboring gardeners, who sowed inferior seeds on ground less fertile than his acres, and whose husbandry was indifferent, were blessed with luxurious crops year after year. At last his discouragement became too great, and he sat down under a great tree and wept. Endless failure had become at last, too heavy for him to bear. When he looked up from his weeping he saw an Angel standing by him, and her words were as comforting as the rains of April: "O faithful husbandman, I have come to praise you because of the fertility and luxuriance of your gardens. There is no gardener in this valley like unto you." "Please, do not heap insult unto my sorrows" pleaded the man "This is more than I can bear" "I am not speaking in ridicule," said the Angel gently. The gardener ceased weeping and listened Then the Angel transported him into a high country and here he beheld the most luxurious gardens that he had ever looked upon. "This is your garden" said his guide "and it's blooms are neverfading and eternal. The seeds which you sowed so faithfully on earth were too immortal for the gardens of this world and were transported to these acres for your eternal food" "But why do my fellow gardeners, who husband poorly and whose seed is inferior to mine, behold their acres on earth heavy with harvest ?" The seeds which they have sown are always productive of temporary results" said the Angel. "They sowed envy selfishness, avarice, hatred and pride, while you have sown tolerance and love - two seeds which seldom bring a rewarding crop on earth." Ere the gardener could thank her, the Angel of the Harvest was gone.