"My dad ate one goat for ten years", John told me as we drove through Akuse junction towards Kpong. I had been seeing John come around my workplace in his boiler suit to service our air conditioners but we never spoke to each other.
That fateful afternoon, after we closed from work, I met John standing by the roadside with his two gas cylinders beside him. He looked so tired, restless, and, somehow, expectant. It was a common practice of almost all staff who didn't have their own means of transport to stand by the roadside to stop any company person for a lift.
For the first time, John, whom I knew from a distance was going to sit in my car. “Oh, thank you for the lift", he said, after he pulled his seatbelt to lock himself up. "I have never met you before", he said, with a tiring smile.
"Since I was engaged by the authority, I had never stayed here up to a month. I have always spent a considerable time in the North", I answered.
"I see", John responded, nodding his head continuously. "Anyway, only few people do what you have just done. We never spoke before and I didn't stop you but you did all by yourself to give a brother a helping hand...God bless you", John blessed me with another nod.
"Your gesture reminds me of how my dad and the whole family ate one goat for ten years. And we still continue to eat the remaining he left for us", John said, looking depressed.
"One goat for ten good years?” I asked in a great amazement.
"Yes, ten years and more".
John continued to tell me the story of my life. He told me how his father killed the only goat he had in the village at the time and shared it among all the villagers because hunger struck them. He told me how many people discouraged him on the decision to show this "insane" love.
According to him, everybody who had a share of this love, came every year to share their little meat they have with his father. The generations of these men also came to hear of this and still share their love with John's family.
As he narrated the story, tears glistened his eyes. "If my father hadn't sacrificed the little he had that day, my brother would have died", John agonized. "My father was just a cleaner in his company. Years later, my elder brother became sick. He took him to the hospital with no money in his account. But there too, the meat of the goat he sacrificed, paid. Till now, we have been eating the remaining of the goat he shared ten years ago.
In life, there is nothing you sacrifice without a reward. The little you have today may need that sacrifice in order to prepare you for a harvest of abundance. (Ecclesiastic 11: 1) "Cast thy bread upon the waters and after many days thou shall find it. “You may not know what your little benevolence will send to someone and what it will bring to you and your family. Learn to sacrifice.
Christmas and the New Year celebrations are all about love. Share the little you have with the poor, your workmates, your neighbors and any other person you can.
Written by Patrick K. Atsu
(Author of Invoking the Success in Your Relation)
Email: [email protected]
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Very interesting and inspiring message
This story is really wonderful and well crafted. I was amazed at the title and was eager to read to the end. Kudos for such a piece of writing. In life such things do happen. There are some of us who got our jobs through a little kind gesture we did many years ago. Others have gotten it through some good of a sort done by their parents. I believe we must never make people feel bad if they ever come to us for some help of a sort even if we are not in the position to offer that help. Some words of encouragement and hope of a way out of a situation to such people will do better than looking down on people and calling them names. Some folks hardly see opportunity when people approach them to seek for their help. But sometimes the need in another man's life of which you have a means of a sort is what may eventually connect you to your own needs in the end. If you cannot help someone in need, it ok but don't add insult to injury by looking down on them or even disgracing them. Some people are really good at mocking people in need. Some kids of certain rich folks are very good at making kids of poor folks looks less of human beings. But every encounter with a less privilege is actually an opportunity to advance one's life. We just have to be wise in how we treat people. What goes around comes around
THIS IS VERY TOURCHIN. GOD BLESS YOU
This is a great piece and very inspiring especially when everyone is becoming selfish day by day.