Good or bad, who knows?
Once upon a time there was an old wise man who owned a lovely horse. Then one day, out of the blue, his horse broke free and ran away. A neighbour who heard what happened said: “That is terrible news that your only horse ran away.” However, the wise man replied, “Good or bad, who knows!”
Miraculously a week later the man’s horse returned, bringing with it ten wild stallions. Witnessing the spectacular scene, the neighbour said, “That’s great news that you now have ten new stal- lions.” To which the wise man replied, “Good or bad, who knows!”
A few days later the son of the wise man was out training one of the new stallions when he was thrown off, landed badly and broke his leg. The concerned neighbour said, “That’s terrible news that your son broke his leg.”The wise man responded just as he had before, saying, “Good or bad, who knows!”
Two more weeks past and then the army came to town, enroll- ing all the young men to go fight in the war. The son couldn’t fight because of his leg. And yes, you guessed it, the wise man had the same open-minded response: “Good or bad, who knows!”
I love this parable because it so beautifully illustrates what this part of the book is all about. When things happen in life you never know for certain at the time if they are good or bad. And if you are patient, you will more often than not appreciate when look- ing back on events that they were the best possible things to hap- pen. Or put a different way, miracles are always happening, even if at the time we don’t always recognize them as such.
