God Came Thrice

Once there was a tailor who was very, very old. One day he was praying and speaking to God. He said, "Some people say You are in Heaven. Some people say You are on earth. Some people say You are both in Heaven and on earth. In my case, I believe that You are both in Heaven and on earth. Because I will die soon, I wish to see You in both places. I am afraid I will depart from this earth without seeing You. I also have no idea whether or not I will even be able to see You in Heaven. I am praying for You to come and visit me just once while I am here on earth."

The tailor continued, "Lord, I have been an honest tailor. I have always charged people less than the actual price, and they are very grateful to me. I have done many good things. Lord, I beg of You, will you not come and see me, only once, before I die?"

The tailor heard an Inner Voice telling him, "Tomorrow I shall come and visit you."

The old man was thrilled. He continued praying and praying to God. Early the next morning, the man went to his shop. He was tailoring many things. The whole time, he was hoping that God would come to visit him.

An hour later, an old lady came to the tailor. She was very sad. She said, "The children are all stealing the mangoes from my tree. I cannot do anything by myself to stop them. Will you please come and help me?"

The tailor said, "I am an old man. Will the children listen to me?"

The old lady answered, "You are a man. Whether you are old or not, it will really help if you come."

The tailor said, "All right. I will go. But I will not be able to scold the children. They will laugh at me. I will advise them that stealing is not a good thing.'"

The tailor accompanied the old lady and spoke to the children. There were five or six boys. He said, "Stealing is not good. If you steal, one day you will be caught. Then you will be punished. It is better not to steal. If you want to have a few mangoes, I am sure the owner will give you a few. Please do not steal."

There was some magic touch in the tailor's voice. The children said, "We will not steal any more." They even returned to the old lady all the mangoes that they had stolen earlier.

The old lady was very pleased and gave back a few mangoes to each boy. She said to the tailor, "Now you should get a mango!"

He replied, "Oh, no, I should not receive a mango for such a little help. Furthermore, I do not care for mangoes."

The old lady was very grateful to the tailor. He was very happy.

The old man went back to his shop and started tailoring again. Then a young girl came into his shop and said, "My father is very, very sick. He has got fever and he is vomiting. I am just a little girl, and I do not know what to do for my father. I do not even know where the doctor is. Can you help me?"

The old man said, "Yes, I know where the doctor is. I will make sure that he comes to take care of your father." The old man went to the doctor's office and brought something for the daughter to give to her father. The tailor saw that the father was, indeed, very sick. He could also see that the father was very poor. So the old man gave the father some money to pay for the doctor's fees.

Then the tailor came back and started doing his work once again. Most devotedly, he was tailoring. A very, very old lady came and said to the tailor, "I will soon die."

The tailor replied, "Why do you have to worry? We will all die one day. You will see God in Heaven."

"I will see God in Heaven?" moaned the old lady, with total disbelief in her voice.

The tailor immediately said, "You do not believe in God? Go away from my shop if you do not believe in God!"

"I will believe in God only when someone gives me the money to buy my coffin before I die."

The old man said, "You want to buy your coffin? All right. I will take you to the place where you can select the coffin; I will buy it for you. Then will you believe in God?"

The old lady answered, "Certainly! I will believe in God if you buy me the coffin I select. Once I die, my relatives will use the coffin that I have chosen."

The tailor went with the old lady to the shop and bought the coffin she selected. Then he returned to his shop once again. He said, "What have I done? What have I done? First I went out to help the lady whose mangoes were being stolen. Then I went to help the little girl find a doctor for her father. Finally, I went to buy a coffin for the old lady. Since You always keep Your promise, I am sure you came here while I was gone."

The old man's Inner Voice said, "I am so grateful to you and so proud of you. I came to you in the form of the lady whose mangoes were being stolen. I came to you in the form of the little girl whose father was dying. I came to you in the form of the old lady who was desperately in need of a coffin. I told you that I would come and see you once today. Instead, I came to you three times, and three times you have pleased Me far beyond your imagination."