This great story from Paulo Coelho comes from his book ”Like a Flowing River.”
A father was trying to read the newspaper, but his little son kept pestering him. Finally, the father grew tired of this and, tearing a page from the newspaper – one that bore a map of the world – he cut it into many pieces and handed them to his son. ”Right, now you’ve got something to do. I’ve given you a map of the world and I want to see if you can put it back together correctly.” He resumed his reading, hoping that the task would keep the child occupied for the rest of the day.
However, a quarter of an hour later, the boy returned with the completed map. ”Has your mother been teaching you geography?” asked his father in astonishment. ”I don’t even know what that is,” replied the boy. ”But there was a photo of a man on the other side of the page, so I put the man back together and found I’d put the world back together too.”
So often we want to change the world for the better, but we don’t bother because the task seems too big. This story reminds us to start with the people around us. For me that means, positively influencing others and helping them in their relationship with Jesus. Let’s start now, one life at a time. Who are you going to help rebuild first?