WRITTEN IN SAND and STONE

The son was wounded, but without saying anything he wrote in the sand: “Today my father hurt me.”

The kept walking on their trek until they found an oasis, where they decided to rest for the night.

The son awakened early and saw a tree of dates nearby, and decided to gather some fruit for his father’s breakfast.

Just before getting to the tree, he stepped into a pit of quick sand and started sinking. The father heard his son’s desperate cries for help, and at the risk of his own life, managed to save the son. After a while the son recovered from his near death experience and he wrote on a stone: “Today my father saved my life.”

The father who had insulted his son’s feelings, and later saved his life asked him: “After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now you write on stone…Why?”

The son replied, “When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand where the wind of forgiveness can erase it away, but when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it.