The Brick

A young and successful executive was travelling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag’s side door!

He slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot where the brick had hit the car. The angry young executive jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, “What was that all about and who are you? Just what are you doing? That is a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?”

The young boy was apologetic. “Please, sir…please, I’m sorry but I didn’t know what else to do,” he pleaded. “I threw the brick because no one else would stop…”  

With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the boy pointed to a spot just around a parked car. “It’s my brother,’ he said. “He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair, and I can’t lift him up.”
 
Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, “Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He’s hurt and he’s too heavy for me.”

Moved beyond words, the young executive tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the disabled boy back into the wheelchair, then took out a linen handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay. 

“Thank you and may God bless you,” the grateful child told the stranger.

Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy push his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home.

It was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar. The damage was very noticeable, but the young executive never bothered to repair the dented side door. He kept the dent there to remind him of this message:

“Don’t go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!” 

God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts.

Sometimes when we do not have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at us. It is our choice whether to listen or not. These bricks may be in the form of challenges, problems, setbacks, illness, etc., to remind us that everything is not in our control. Man has always tried to have everything in his control and largely went to tame nature and the phenomena for his benefit. But it does not always happen like that and sometimes it backfires with disastrous consequences. It is a way to remind us to look beyond the apparent, at the possibility of existence of a higher Reality.                

God sends us flowers every spring.  

He sends us a sunrise every morning.  

Let us face it, friends — He is crazy about us!

God did not promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow, sun without rain, but He did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears, and light for the way. 

We are only passing through this world to attain the ultimate goal of Infinite Bliss. Please take time to help someone along the way.

God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage. 

If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it.