Serve Others Serve God

Once upon a time, there lived a man named Allen. He was a cobbler by profession. Although his financial condition was not that good but he was a good and honest man. Everyone in the village knew he was a good man because of his good deeds. Therefore he had a good reputation in the Village where he lived. Although he was financially poor he was not poor by heart. Whenever there was any kind of problem in the village Allen would be the first person to step up and solve the problem. No doubt he was a Good man. One fine day while he was sleeping in the afternoon he saw a dream where he saw God informing him that he will be visiting him the very next day and have lunch with him. At first, Allen thought that it was just a dream and nothing else but later on that day he felt that maybe the dream which he saw was not just a dream but a message given directly to him by God Almighty himself. Since he was a religious person he did not take any risk. The very next day he went to the market to buy food items. As soon as he returned home from the market he started preparing for lunch. Although he was poor that day he purchased a lot of expensive food items to impress or rather serve God. He cooked some special dishes and waited for God to come to his place.

He was waiting and waiting when suddenly he heard a knock at his door. He rushed to open the door and welcome God. As soon as he opened the door he saw a poor lady with a small kid. At first, he was taken aback because he expected God outside the door but the moment he saw the poor lady in torn clothes with a small kid he got a bit irritated. No doubt he felt a bit irritated. In a stern voice, he asked the poor lady "What do you want?" Then the poor lady replied, "Can you give us some food? We did not eat for more than two days and we are extremely hungry."

Hearing this Allen at first thought he will give the food to the lady which he had cooked specially for God. But within a few seconds he changed his mind and said that he has no food to offer to the poor lady and her small child. The lady went away with a disappointing face. Most probably Allen did this because he felt that the special food was reserved only for God and no one else. After that Allen closed the door.

Again he started waiting for God to arrive at his place. This time he heard a knock at his door. This time Allen was sure that it was none other than God himself knocking at the door. He rushed again to open the door. This time again he was wrong. As soon as he opened the door he saw an old man with a dog begging in front of him to give him food as he was very hungry and his dog was also starving. Even after hearing this Allen without even thinking for once rejected to give away any food to the poor man and his dog. The man left along with his dog with a sad and disappointing face.

After this incident, Allen waited for God for the next 3- 4 hours. But God did not visit him that day. That night as he was sleeping he saw God in his dream again. This time He asked God in his dream why he did not visit his place even after informing him. To which God replied to him, "My child I visited your place not once but twice and also I had asked for food but you did not provide me with food."

Hearing this Allen realized what God was referring to. He realized his mistake. He realized that God can come in front of us in the form of an animal for instance dog in this case or in the form of a poor lady or an old man. Moreover, Allen failed to realize that God lives in each of us and also failed to realize a simple fact that "When we Serve Others We Serve God." In a nutshell, it can be concluded that God is not only present in church, mosque, gurudwara or temple but God resides in each one of us and to realize this simple fact we just need to open our mind and our eyes!

Moral of the Story: "When you serve others i.e. the needy people you serve God."