The Same Source

In these days when we still try to be parochial and provincial in the way we view the world, our beliefs, and too many other things…one of my favorite stories to ponder when we begin to think “it’s all about us”.

"THE WELL"

Once upon a time, a farmer dug a well on his property and up gushed sweet, good water. It was the most delicious water ever discovered. Tasting the water, he know that it was indeed the best in all the world. His friends and neighbors confirmed this, and soon people from far away were coming to his well to fill jugs and pails with his water.

Now another farmer who lives only two miles away also dug a well and up gushed sweet, good water. He tasted the water from his well and knew that it was the freshest, sweetest water in the whole world. Soon his friends and family as well as great crowds of visitors came with buckets and pails to obtain his wondrously pure water.

Before long the two farmers were engaged in heated arguments over which one's well was the best in the world. The crowds of people coming to their wells passed one another on the road, and as they did they hurled vicious insults at each other. Each farmer condemned the other's well as poisonous, saying the other's water only appeared to be pure. Eventually the dispute over the two wells led to bloody battles between the two groups of water seekers. All of this was very sad, for if either of the farmers had taken the time to reflect on their gift of water, they would have realized that they both had tapped into the same underground river of crystal clear and pure water."
{by Edward Hays, The Magic Lantern, p. 81-81}