The Dark Candle
A man had a little daughter -- an only and much-beloved
child. He lived for her -- she was his life. So when she
became ill and her illness resisted the efforts of the
best obtainable physicians, he became like a man
possessed, moving heaven and earth to bring about her
restoration to health.
His best efforts proved unavailing and the child died.
The father was totally irreconcilable. He became a bitter
recluse, shutting himself away from his many friends
and refusing every activity that might restore his poise
and bring him back to his normal self. But one night he
had a dream.
He was in Heaven, and was witnessing a grand pageant of
all the little child angels. They were marching in an
apparently endless line past the Great White Throne.
Every white-robed angelic child carried a candle. He
noticed that one child's candle was not lighted. Then
he saw that the child with the dark candle was his own
little girl. Rushing to her, while the pageant faltered,
he seized her in his arms, caressed her tenderly, and
then asked: "How is it, darling that your candle alone
is unlighted?" "Father, they often relight it, but your
tears always put it out."
Just then he awoke from his dream. The lesson was crystal
clear, and its effects were immediate. From that hour on
he was not a recluse, but mingled freely and cheerfully
with his former friends and associates. No longer would
his darling's candle be extinguished by his useless tears.
Addendum -- Psalms 56:13 (NKJ) "For You have delivered my soul
from death. Have you not kept my feet from falling, That
I may walk before God In the LIGHT of the living?"
[ Strickland Gillilan -- source unknown ]
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