Hard and Hollow

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Once there was a family on a picnic, and they were interrupted by a fierce hailstorm. The father told everyone to run for the car, and so there they sat, watching the hailstones as they rained down upon all their things, sitting out in an open place in the meadow. Fortunately, the car was under some trees-otherwise it would have been severely damaged. The noise from the storm was very loud, but the loudest noise came from their cooler, empty on the table, and resting on its side. Right next to it was the picnic tablecloth, wadded up in a pile.

As the family sat in the car watching all this, the father asked his oldest son about the noise they were hearing. “Why is the cooler making such a racket?” he asked. “Because of the hailstones,” his son answered. “But the hailstones are hitting the tablecloth too,” the father said. “Can you hear that?” “No,” said the son.

There was much discussion in the back seat about this, as the son’s younger sisters talked about it with him. At last they said it was because of what the cooler was made out of. “That is very good,” the father said. “and partly right. The cooler makes so much noise because it is both hard and hollow.

And here is the lesson for us. The children of the kingdom are like different kinds of objects left out in the open in a hailstorm. The hail stones are the trials which come to us all. But some, as they go through these trials, always make a great noise about it. As the hailstones strike them, they prove to all who are around them that they are both hard and hollow. But others are soft and yielding, and they have learned to receive the blows without complaint-without making a great noise. And this is why our Lord tells us to do all things without complaining. He does not want us living hard and hollow lives.

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