How the gift is packaged

Motek

Tue, Oct 02 2007, 10:05 pm

A young fellow was about to be graduated from college.

For many months he had admired a beautiful sports car in a dealer's showroom, and knowing his father could well afford it, he told him that it was all he wanted. As Graduation Day approached, the young man awaited signs that his father had purchased the car.

Finally, on the morning of his graduation, his father called him into his private study. His father told him how proud he was to have such a fine son, and told him how much he loved him. He handed him a beautifully wrapped gift box.

Curious, but somewhat disappointed, the young man opened the box and found a lovely, leather-bound Bible, with his name embossed in gold. Very upset, he said, 'With all your money all you could give me is a Bible? He stormed out of the house, leaving the Bible.

Many years passed and the young man was very successful in business. He had stayed in the city where his college was. He had a beautiful home and a wonderful family, but he realized that his father was getting older, and thought perhaps it was time to go to see him. He had not seen him all these years. Before he could make the arrangements, he received a telegram telling him his father had passed away, and had willed all of his possessions to him. He needed to come home immediately and take charge of things.

When he arrived at his father's house, sudden sadness and regret filled his heart. He began to search through his father's important papers and saw the still new Bible, just as he had left it years ago.

With tears, he opened the Bible and began to turn the pages. Suddenly a car key dropped out of the Bible. It had a tag with the dealer's name, the dealer with the sports car he had desired. On the tag was the date of his graduation, and the words...PAID IN FULL.

He understood that his father had left everything as is, for him to learn the long-term lesson:

How many times do we miss G-d's blessings because they are not packaged as we expected?

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things you had only hoped for…

IF YOUR GIFT IS NOT PACKED THE WAY YOU WANT IT, IT'S BECAUSE IT IS BETTER FOR YOU PACKED THAT WAY!

Ribbie Danzinger

Thu, Oct 04 2007, 4:35 pm

Beautiful!

There is a similar story about a boy who wanted to travel the world and asked his father to give him a stipend. His father gave him one condition: that he lay tefillin every (week)day and the boy agreed and set out for his journey. After some time, the boy called his father and asked for some money, the father asked him if he was laying tefillin every day and the boy replied, "Yeah, yeah, but what about the money?" The father replied that the money would come... However, the money never arrived and the boy, angry and disappointed that his father had not kept his side of the agreement, soon returned home. He walked into his father's room and angrily confronted him. Unmoved by his angry outburst, his father asked him to bring out his tefillin bag, the father opened up the bag and took out the tefillin, put his hand in once more and extracted a wad of money... "If you had kept your side of the bargain, son, you would soon have seen that I had already kept mine..."