Someone asked me, “You write about life. What do you think is in it?” I answered, “It’s a journey we make. With each step, we take up a new test which shows one of the human aspects God gave us.” Having finished, I found another question in his eyes. So, I continued, “Through difficulties, your patience is tested; and through graces, your humbleness is revealed; through your words, your mind and wisdom are measured; and through continuing the journey, your hope and will are gauged. Man is measured by situations. This is how I think life is.
For a moment, he was quite; but he seemed sad. Then he resumed, as one who returned from a long journey full of sad memories, “Don’t you think that life has nothing but hardships for some people? Rarely do you find something joyful about it.” I answered, “It is relative for different people. I believe it depends on our personality traits that enable us to face circumstances. Yet, I think all of us face challenges. Yet, we all have graces which, if we think of, will make us happy.”
Silence prevailed, then I said, “One day, a boy went to play in a park. Having got tired, he sat on a bench, right beside a peer of his. The other boy smiled, as if inviting him to talk. Yet, the former didn’t answer. Rather, he looked at the latter’s luxurious clothes, and stared at his poor ones. The thing that attracted his attention most was the other’s shoes. It was an expensive athletic pair. Then, having looked at his torn ones, he turned his face, only to be overwhelmed by wrath!
His head was filled with questions: “Why don’t I own such a pair? Why should I suffer, while others are happy? Why?” Amidst these questions, he found no answer to the boy’s smile which was still there, except to leave the bench and hide himself with his torn shoes and rags behind a tree. There, he started to look at his shoes, only for his eyes to be filled with tears, looking at the other boy occasionally. It was not long until he saw a woman approaching him with a wheel chair and helping him to it that he might go home!
Only then, he realized the graces he had, and started running around the tree happily as if thanking God. Then, his tears fell in gratitude for what he had, or maybe in sadness for not making a sad heart happy, or maybe for both!
General Bishop
Head of the Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center
