Sharing

This little story arrived, today, in an e-mail from my cousin Heather. It's a story I've heard before - in slightly different version - and, being me, I've tidied up the syntax a wee bit!! It's not a theologically-accurate picture of that dimension that we call "Heaven", but it does carry a very important message!

One day a man was having a conversation with the Lord and said, “Lord, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like.”

The Lord led him to two doors. He opened one of them and the man looked in. In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew, that smelled delicious and made the man's mouth water.

However, the people sitting around the table were thin and sickly, and appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with very long handles that were strapped to their arms and, while each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful, the length of the handle meant that they could not get the spoons back into their mouths.

The man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering as the Lord said, “You have seen Hell.”

They went to the next room and opened the door. The scene was exactly the same as the first one. There was the large round table with the large pot of stew that made the man's mouth water. The people around the table were equipped with the same long-handled spoons but, in this room, the people were well nourished and plump; laughing and talking.

The man was confused! “I don't understand.” He said. “It’s simple,” replied the Lord. “It requires but one skill. You see, these people have learned to feed each other. The greedy think only of themselves.”

When Jesus died on the cross, He was thinking of you.

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:34-35)

"But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another;" (I Thess 4:9-10)

"For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another," (I John 3:11)