A certain woman opened the door of her front yard early one morning after her husband had already left home for work and was surprised to see three old men with long white beards sitting under her oak tree comfortably. In her shock, she gently approached them and inquired of them whom they sought to see (in case there were at the wrong address). To her second amazement, they mentioned her husband's name in full. She then informed them that he wasn't home as he had already left for work, and then asked them to come into the house and wait for him while she quickly sends for him to come home at once. One of the wise men then spoke up on behalf of others saying: "Madam our names are wealth, health and love and we are all brothers but we do not enter into any house/home we choose to visit all at once. Our choice host must pick only one of the three of us while others wait outside or go somewhere else. Whichever one of us is chosen goes in bearing gifts synonymous with his name to that family. That is why we demand to see the head of any household we visit so as to make that choice and decision for his entire family. So please maa'm kindly send for your husband."
The excited woman quickly beckoned on one of her children to run off and call their father to come quickly from his place of work. The child soon returned home with his father who in turn immediately greeted the old men he met waiting. One of the old men then introduced himself and his brothers to the man and repeated their mission and style of visit tas had earlier been done to the man and asked him to make his choice on behalf of his family. The man immediately chose wealth, but his wife immediately interrupted him and chose health instead. As the couple were arguing, their child who had been present and attentive all the while tapped the father and said to them both: "Daddy why don't you pick love instead as love is the greatest of all they say".
The astonished father looked at his wife and nodded in agreement with the wise reasoning of their child and chose love as their family's preferred guest. As soon as love was chosen and stood up, the other two old men/brothers (wealth and health) also stood up themselves and joined love as he headed for the house, each coming with a bag full of gifts.
The very surprised couple then asked in unison why all the three of them were coming in at once when they had earlier said they come in one at a time, and love responded on behalf of others saying:
"of a truth, your child is wise indeed to have sugessted you choose me instead of my other two brothers. You see I am actually the greatest, oldest and most rewarding of the whole three of us, thus in any home where I am the one chosen by the family, my other two brothers who are wealth and health must go in with me and lavish such family with their own gifts as well ."
On hearing this, the husband and wife burst out into tears as they learned a great lesson of life by that experience that day and so must you my dear reader. Money, wealth, fame, success, riches and even health is not everything in life, neither are they the most important requirement for one to attain fulfillment in life; for as the Holy Bible says that of faith, hope and charity (i.e love); charity is the greatest and a man without love (true agape love that christ shows and gives us) is merely wasting his/her time trying to please God or trying to run a heavenly race.
Remember the popular saying CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME! So start loving everyone as much as you can the Christ-like way from today onwards.
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