PASTOR'S PARAGRAPH

A CHRISTMAS PARABLE

Once upon a time there was a great benevolent king who had a charming son. This king was very fair in all of his dealings with his subjects; and many of his subjects loved and served their king with great enthusiasm. This, of course, pleased the king tremendously and, in turn, he became even more generous with his subjects, especially those who served him with such devotion.

The king’s son, the prince, was a wonderful person and the king loved this , his only son with all his heart. Consequently, the king and the prince were even more than father and son, they were great friends and worked to make the kingdom strong and prosperous in every way.

When the people of the kingdom saw the love between the father and his son, and having received so much kindness from both the father and the son, they decided to do something to honor them. They talked it over and decided to honor the son with An annual holiday celebrating the son’s birthday. So, they set about to make that one day of the year very special with the intention of pleasing their great king and his delightful son.

They brought their most precious possessions to the son which made the prince very happy. The people, seeing how much pleasure it gave the prince to receive gifts and how much pleasure they derived in giving gifts to him, decided that it would be a good thing to give gifts to one another also.

But, alas, soon they gave less and less to the prince and more and more to one another. The son’s birthday became nothing more than a time of giving expensive gifts to one another which pleased the merchants immensely, but it saddened the king and his dear son. What had started out to be an honorable thing for the king and his son, became a sad time, indeed. Too bad, it was such a great idea, but it was spoiled by selfishness and greed.

GWS

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