Hand of God

 There were two friends in a coastal village. One of them was a believer of God and the other was a non-believer.

One day they set out in their small fishing boat to a near-by village. It was a bright and breezy day and they were making good progress. Soon the breeze changed to a gale, Dark clouds gathered and there was a heavy down-pour. There was a storm and the boat was carried away to a distant land and capsized and broke into pieces. Both the friends were saved   by clinging to a log and were cast on a small island.

It was a bright morning and the beach was gently sloping. They found that though the boat was lost, luckily, they were alive and there was no bodily injury. The Believer knelt on the beach and thanked God for saving their life and keeping them fit. The Non-believer cursed God and his own luck for their plight.

They wandered on the beach, found fruits and a small stream of sweet and cool water. There were Coconut trees, Banana and other fruit trees Birds and fish were in  plenty There were no humans or wild beasts, So, they could survive without much difficulty. They made fire by striking pieces of flints they found on the beach They could cook their food of fish or foul or roots They made a small hut out of dry coconut tree leaves and tree branches. These   activities kept them busy for some time. Rest of the time they spent in exploring the island and watching small and big ships going past. But the path of the ships was away from the shore and deep in the sea, and so  the ships  were too far for their voice to reach to seek their rescue.

Two weeks had passed on the island, but they could not say when they would be rescued. The Believer prayed hard, and the Non-believer cursed the God for no avail!

One day they had wandered on to the other side of the hill. The shore was craggy. They could hear the sea hurling against the shore. Their hut was not visible from this side because of the hill and forest. It was past noon.  As they looked towards their hut, they saw thick black smoke and leaping flames. They were shocked. – Is our hut in flames? They hurried towards their hut.

They reached the beach and found to their horror their hut reduced to a heap of ashes. They fell to the ground and cried bitterly. Soon they heard the voices of people They saw a boat in the beach and people coming out of it towards them!  

The Leader among them came towards them . He was telling, ‘Our ship is a regular coastal ferry service. We go this way and know that this is an un-inhabited island. To day , thick  black smoke and leaping flames on this island attracted our attention. We thought somebody stranded on this island may have put up this flame as a S.O.S. signal. We anchored the ship in mid-stream , lowered a boat, and came to find out.

The believer said ‘God Bless You . We are two friends from a particular village. A few days back, while going to a near-by village  in our boat. We were caught in a storm. We lost our boat in the storm  and were cast on this island . We had built a hut to survive and , seeing a number of ships plying , were praying for a rescue. As days passed  we were loosing hope of rescue.   Today we had gone to the other side of the island to gather food. We had cooked our lunch and left the fire for use in the evening. There was a lot of trash and dry leaves nearby. It must have caught fire and caused smoke and flames due to the breeze. Our hut and all our belongings  have been reduced to ashes. By the grace of God you noticed the fire and came to inquire. It turned out that the fire which has destroyed all our possession has turned out to be a boon as it attracted your attention.    The leader was sorry for their plight and offered to take them to their village and they gladly agreed. They were happy that their period of worry and anxiety would be over and they could hope to sleep in their warm bed with their dear ones.  When the Leader asked them to climb into the boat, the Believer fell to the ground and kissed the dust and thanked God. When he got up and turned to go, he found the Disbeliever was also praying with tears streaming.!!

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