241- A Musical Note

One day after dinner, a rich merchant called his wife and children, opened his safe and said, “Today I’ve lost everything I own but as you have seen, I ate happily as though nothing wrong had happened. The Lord who has given me has taken; blessed be His name.”

Thus the merchant’s hardship was transformed to praise and thanksgiving to God, which will last to his credit in this world as well as in the world to come.

This merchant’s actions remind me of a dispute that took place between two brothers, when one of them saw the other tracing black ink spots on a sheet of paper. “What are you doing? Why are you smudging the paper with black spots?” asked the brother.

“It’s true that these are black spots but they have their meaning,” the other replied.

“What do they mean?”

 “Wait a while.”

The brother then drew lines across the page, connected the black spots with short lines and thus transformed the seemingly meaningless spots into a musical note.

This is how God transforms our lives which are full of hardships. He creates from the black spots a hymn of praise to glorify Him and to bear witness to Him.

→ English translation of the story here at St-Takla.org: نوتة موسيقية.

Even if my life is full of hardships that appear as black spots,

Your Divine Hand will change them into a hymn of thanksgiving.

Your Fiery Spirit will comfort my feelings of sadness,

And will transform the bitterness within me into heavenly sweetness.

Don’t Suppress his Courage

Short Stories (Stories for the Youth) Books by Father Tadros Yacoub Malaty

The Broken Heart