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Last Post 01/24/2010 6:28 AM by  Pearl33
We are Three, You are Three
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Pearl33
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01/24/2010 6:28 AM
    We Are Three, You are Three


    When his ship stopped at a remote island for a day, the bishop determined to use the time as profitable as possible. He strolled along the seashore and came across three fishermen attending to their nets. In Pidgin English they announced to him that centuries before missionaries had Christianised them. "We Christians!" they said proudly pointing to one another.

    The bishop was impressed. Did they know the Lord's Prayer? They had never heard of it. The bishop was shocked. "What do you say then when you pray?"

    We lift eyes towards heaven. We pray, "We are three, you are three, have mercy on us!"

    The bishop was appalled at the primitive, downright heretical, nature of the prayer. So he spent the whole day teaching them the Lord"s Prayer. The fishermen were poor learners, but they gave it all they had and before the bishop sailed away the next day, he had the satisfaction of hearing them go through the formula faultlessly.

    Month later his ship happened to pass those islands again and the bishop, as he paced the deckreciting the evening prayer, recalled the pleasure of the three men on that distant island who were now able to pray, thanks to his patient efforts.

    Suddenly he saw a spot of light in the east that kept approaching the ship. As he gazed in wonder seeing three figures walking on the water, the captain stopped the boat and everyone leaned over the rails to see this sight. They were the bishop's fishermen, of course!

    "Bishop", they exclaimed, "we heard your boat go past and have come in a hurry to meet you."

    "What is it you want?" asked the awe-stricken bishop.

    "Bishop, " they said, "we are so, so sorry. We forget lovely prayer. "We say: Our father in heaven, holy be your name, your kingdom come! then we forget. Tell us the prayer again."

    It was a chastened bishop who replied, "Go back to your island, my friends, and each time you pray, say "We are Three, You are Three, have mercy on us!"



    Sometimes when I teach children I feel the way the bishop does at the end of the joke. Many children already have such a closeness to God. If we can somehow "teach" children to keep that closeness as they grow up!
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