God is truth
By Julia Fernandes
November 29, 2011
(This story has been set in a period drama so as to protect the identities of the persons involved).
Once upon a time there was a girl who worked in the kingdom of a Prince. Every day she had to go to the court to carry out her job of arranging the flowers in the court. She was a young, simple, honest and God-fearing girl. She would never crib or complain, just do her work and go home. The gate keeper of the court was a crooked, nosey and evil old man in his 50s.
This man projected to the world that he was a good and God-fearing person. In reality, he was a wolf in a sheep’s clothing. Unknown to the Prince, he would always find ways to follow the girl and deliberately cross paths with her. He would continuously eye her and the other girls working in the court.
Every day this man would always be late in opening the gates of the court. This girl would come early and she would have to wait, becoming an object of stare for all the people passing by. One fine day, when she took him to task, he rudely challenged her that he would not open the gates early. One of the courtiers, a sly man, who was also present, overheard the whole conversation.
This poor girl realized she had no option but to go the Prince. She went to the Prince and apprised him of her problem. The Prince called the gate keeper and questioned him. The gate keeper did a volte-face and completely denied the truth. The Prince knew he was lying but since he was an old hand recruited by the King, the Prince played it safe. When the courtier was called, he too, sugar coated the truth and denied it.
Both were far from truthful. The gate-keeper would every year ask and take 10,000 silver coins from the King to go on a pilgrimage. But he would not go. He would stash away the coins and hide in his house for one week and utilize the money for something else. When the Prince was recruiting the courtier, he lied to the Prince that he was earning 10,000 silver coins a month, and he asked for a remuneration of 12,000 silver coins where actually he was earning only 5,000 silver coins a month.
Unknown to both of them, while the courtier fooled the Prince, the gate-keeper managed to hoodwink the King for so many years. However, the Prince could not see through their deceit. And he turned the tables on the helpless girl and chided her for not bringing it to his notice earlier on.
Little did the Prince knew that struggles were a part of her daily life. She would have to wait in serpentine queues in the heat of the sun while commuting to the court or while buying flowers, or fetching things for her house.
Struggles of such nature increased her endurance and patience levels to such an extent that a daily 10-minute wait outside the court did not register as a problem to her. It was only when the gate-keeper threatened to not open the gates early and fearing for her personal safety she approached the Prince.
The girl had no takers for the truth. She cried bitterly for she was surrounded by liars. Truth had no place to stand that day! And where truth is denied, God is denied too. The Bible says God dislikes a lying tongue. Heavens rejoice when a man’s tongue speaks the truth. Unfortunately, very few people seriously understand this.
No matter is insignificant to God and even the smallest lie said to intentionally hurt someone cannot escape God’s attention for God is truth! Hopefully, one day the Prince will realise the value of truth.