A girl with an umbrella

źródło: http://joyful31.com/2016/07/15/pray-with-belief/

It was the third hard year with no rain. The crops had disappeared and trees had lost their leaves standing out like cactuses on the dusty horizon.

The riverbeds were dry. Where once flowed clean, fresh water from the nearby mountains, there was now a bed of cracked clay. No one knew what had happened to the birds except for the vultures that circled the town, looking for dead bodies of animals. 

There was famine in the land.

Starving people walked around like sticks . Desperate for help, they held a meeting under a big banyan tree that was as old as the village. “Let us pray”, said an elderly woman. “Only God can help us now.” 

There lived people of many faiths in the village and they were debating long where to hold the prayer – in a church, a mosque, a synagogue or a temple. There was no consensus. Exhausted, they decided to hold it under the open sky. The night was clear with the full moon and shimmering stars with sadly no  single cloud.

Amongst the people gathering for prayer, there was a little girl holding hands high with an open umbrella over their heads. Huffing for breath, she stood there, looking up, umbrella still unfurled. The gathered crowd could not but help turn around and wonder what was going on. Some were curious; others were annoyed and some others were even furious as they took an umbrella for a bad omen. 

Finally a curious bystander asked, “Why did you bring the umbrella? Can’t you see there is no rain and we have come here to pray for it? Only a foolish person would stand on a clear night like this with an open umbrella.” 

“Yes indeed”, answered the girl. “I came to pray too and I am certain that our prayer will be answered and it will rain. That is why I brought this big, colourful umbrella.” 

And it started to rain soon.

Adapted from The Child who Brought an Open Umbrella for Prayer Nazeer Ahmed.