Deuteronomy: 8:11 Take care that you do not forget the LORD your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today.
8:12 When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them,
8:13 and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, 8:14 then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, (…)
8:17 Do not say to yourself, "My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth."
There is a folk tale in Transylvania, on the mouth of the people of old, jotted down by Elek Benedek, that once upon a time there was a married couple, living in a very small town. They were as poor as the famous but starving mouse of the church. Many evenings they were not able to afford a nice cooked dinner at home. They profoundly loved each other, despite that the man had an almost egregiously sized nose and the woman had a bit longer ears than she had ever wanted. However these conditions were not all the source of their problems, because they argued almost all the time over their poverty. This permanent tension made their days more bitterish than tonic water when you had too much of it. The wife did not complain that his man iwas a womanizer, what he indeed was not, but she passionately lamented about the lack of husbandry, as they did not have a farmland or any farm animals, like horses and cows.
One day the husband came home, like being energized and looking a bit high on joy, and from the garden gate he began to shout that “ Hey wife, hey wife something amazing just happened.”
“What did happen to You” ?
“ I went to the next town, and on the road I found a carriage stuck in deep mud, driven by four horse size turkeys. Inside the carriage a fairy sat, asking me to help her vehicle out of the mud. I brake a couple of branches from the roadside trees, I sang motivational songs to the turkeys, and after a couple of short hours the carriage was free. The fairy was fallen asleep at that time, thus I poked the closest turkey on its beak. The turkey gabbled so violently, that the fairy awoke, and asked me what favor she could do for me. I told her how poor we are at home, so she promised that we can have three magical requests and she will grant them. Nonetheless, having only three, we have to be very careful what to ask.”
“Are you drunk or are you kidding?” asked the wife. “Neither” said the husband.
“Let us to try it out, then” said the wife, “I wish to have some nice sausage for cooking.”
Miraculously, a big pot with a huge German sausage appeared out of the thin air.
The couple were amazed how fast and generously the wish was accomplished. However, driving from joy the man gesticulated with a broad hand move so unfortunately that the sausage from the pot landed on the dirt floor by accident. The wife was not able to help but rebuked her husband with a burst of a curse: “May the sausage join your nose” she shouted. And it was done. The sausage enlengthened the already long nose of the man, inseparably. They had been arguing for an hour or so that whose fault that was. ”
“You dropped the pot, but you coursed me and wasted a wish, and so on.”
Whatever they tried to severe the sausage from the nose, nothing worked. Finally the wife took tailor size scissors to cut it off from his nose. The man pleaded for mercy, because it was impossible that the procedure would not hurt severely his nose.
Nonetheless the woman was adamant no to waste the final wonderwish on subtle things like his husband’s nose, rather they should wish for wealth, like a house, farming land, livestock and so on.
After a lot of struggle finally the wife showed mercy and used the final wish to say, that may the sausage fall from your nose. And it was done, thus no more wishes remained.
Like a real miracle somehow this final agreement created marital peace.
“Now I can see, that you really love my long nose more than a nice house and land ” said the husband.
And with that peace, instead of constant arguing they worked hard together, and quite soon they got a nice house and farmland and livestock.
It happened exactly just as Jesus said it to the disciples that “ Therefore, I tell you, don't be anxious for your life: what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor yet for your body, what you will wear. Isn't life more than food, and the body more than clothing? See the birds of the sky, that they don't sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren't you of much more value than they? "Which of you, by being anxious, can add one moment to his lifespan? Why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They don't toil, neither do they spin, yet I tell you that even Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today exists, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, won't he much more clothe you, you of little faith? "Therefore don't be anxious, saying, 'What will we eat?', 'What will we drink?' or, 'With what will we be clothed?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first God's Kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore don't be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Each day's own trouble is sufficient. ”
The man and the woman of the folk tale couple when they reached the heavenly prescribed peace, that peace achieved the blessing upon their marriage, upon their work, upon their achievements.
Some people try to force fate and the universe to have wealth, often robbing their fellow humans, just like nations attack nations for resources and slaves. However all wrong-doers were and are punished on the long run, empires and emperors erased from the Earth, as a warning to all upcoming new ones.
Everybody must understand that we can not have anything, especially happiness without a holy blessing, and we can not have blessings without sharing and caring for each other.
And we have to always give thanks to the Giver, to God.
Sometimes, we think the world is here to take it and we are here to grab all the resources to use them for our own purposes. Sometimes we forget that our ultimate purpose is God, and our relationship with God starts with obeying the commandments, not as slaves, but as children of God, out of unconditional love toward the Creator Grandfather Spirit.
We have to give thanks among seemingly unfortunate conditions, and we have to give thanks among seemingly fortunate conditions as well, but we shall never forget the divine commandments in order to obey and respect them, and we shall never forget that God is present always and everywhere, especially in our lives. As the Apostle James wrote: “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. ”
That is why Moses gave the serious warning to the people that “Take care that you do not forget the LORD your God, by failing to keep his commandments, … do not exalt yourself, forgetting the LORD your God,… Do not say to yourself, "My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth”. Therefore let us give thanks to the Lord always with humble hearts, so at beginning of the Advent season of 2020, looking forward to the blessing of the Lord by the Holy Spirit, which is the permanent Christmas in the hearts of the blessed children of the for ever blessed God,
Amen.
