OT Story - sounds familiar!

[Guest guest]

Once upon a time, there was a village that grew up on the bank of a

river. It was a beautiful place. The people who

lived in this village had good hearts and intentions.

One day, a woman from the village was walking by the river, when to

her terror, she noticed an infant there. Unable

to swim, it was struggling for its life. She dove into the river,

and pulled the child out. It survived.

She told her village of this strange event, and so the next day,

several others when walking with the woman along the

river bank. To their amazement, there were again, not one, but now

several, babies in the river. They all dove in, and

rescued the infants. All the children survived but one.

The next day was like the one before, but this time there were

twenty infants awash in the waters of the river. The

people of the village organized themselves methodically. Some

learned life-saving. Some, mouth-to-mouth breathing.

Others prayed for those infants who could not be saved.

Most of the children lived, though not as they had before. Some

limped. Others retreated from the world where they

had known such fear. A few

were buried.

Many came to marvel at the village and what the people of the

village had done to pull the children daily out of the

water. How noble. How courageous. The people of the village were

justifiably proud of all the lives they had saved.

Then, one day a stranger came to the village, a stranger who looked

at things strangely. This stranger was shown

about the town, and he witnessed the rescue of countless children.

He remained oddly silent, gave very few

compliments, and finally demanded to see the mayor of the village.

Stunned, the townspeople took him to the mayor.

" Why, " asked the stranger, " …has no one gone upstream to find out

how it is that these children are drowning in the

water? "

All the people of the village looked at one another. The stranger

led a troupe of people from the village up the river. It

was an arduous journey, and tested their strength in every way. But

having traversed the difficult terrain upstream,

they discovered a terrifying sight. A madman throwing babies in the

water.

The stranger looked at the people from the village and asked,

" Which is noble and courageous and right? To pull

children from the river, or to

stop the one whose practice it is to throw them in? "

The madman was led away, and the people of the village no longer

needed to dive into the river to save children from

drowning, for it never happened again.