Friday 27 January 2012

A quiet voice within.

As a teacher of origami, Ben
Rowland was asked to
represent his school at an
exhibit at a large mall in. He
decided to take along a
couple hundred folded paper
cranes to pass out to people
who stopped at his booth.
Before that day, something
strange happened ,a voice
told him to find a piece of
gold foil paper and make a
gold origami crane. The voice
was so insistent that Ben
actually found himself
rummaging through his
collection of origami papers
at home until he found one
flat, shiny piece of gold foil.
“Why am I doing this?” he
asked himself. Ben had never
worked with the shiny gold
paper; it didn’t fold as easily
or neatly as the crisp
multicolored papers. But that
little voice kept nudging. Ben
tried to ignore the voice.
“Why gold foil anyway?
Paper is much easier to work
with,” he grumbled.
The voice continued. “Do it!
And give it to a special
person.” By now Ben was
getting a little cranky. “What
special person?” he asked
the voice. “You’ll know which
one,” the voice said.
That evening Ben carefully
folded and shaped the
unforgiving gold foil until it
became as graceful and
delicate as a real crane
about to take flight. He
packed the exquisite crane
in the box along with about
200 other colorful paper
cranes he’d made over the
previous few weeks.
The next day at the mall,
dozens upon dozens of
people stopped by Ben's
booth to ask questions about
origami. He demonstrated the
art. He folded, unfolded and
refolded. He explained the
intricate details, the need for
sharp creases.
Then, suddenly, there was a
woman standing in front of
Ben. Was this that special
person? Ben had never seen
her before, and she hadn’t
said a word as she watched
him carefully fold a pink piece
of paper into a crane with
pointed, graceful wings.
Ben glanced up at her face,
and before he realized it, he
found himself reaching for
the gold-foil crane he’d
labored over the night
before. Carefully he picked
up the gold crane, and gently
placed it in the woman’s
hand.
Ben said: “I don’t know why,
but a voice told me to give
you that golden crane. The
crane is the ancient symbol
of peace,” Ben said simply.
The woman didn’t say a word
as she slowly cupped her
hand around the fragile bird
as if it were alive. When Ben
looked at her face, he saw
tears filling her eyes.
Finally, the woman took a
deep breath and said, “My
husband died three weeks
ago. This is the first time
I’ve been out. Today….” She
wiped her eyes with her free
hand, still gently cradling the
golden crane with the other.
Then she said very quietly,
as tears streamed down her
face. “Today would have
been our ‘golden’ wedding
anniversary.”
Then the lady said in a clear
voice, “Thank you so much
for this beautiful gift. Now I
know that my husband is at
peace.
“Don’t you see? The voice
you heard, it was the voice
of God, and this beautiful
crane is a gift from Him. It’s
the most wonderful 50th
wedding anniversary gift I
could have received. Thank
you for listening to Holy
Spirit within your heart.”
And that’s how Ben learned to
listen very carefully, when
the Holy Spirit speaks to him
within, and tells him to do
things he may not
understand,now or even
later.
Are you listening, my friend?
God may be speaking to you in a very still voice within,never in any way ignore him.

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