A fox once passed by a beautiful garden, filled with row after row of delicious fruits and vegetables. The food looked so tempting, the fox wanted to eat it all. But there was a problem. A fence surrounded the garden.
The fox went around the entire fence many times, looking for an opening.. Finally, he found a hole under the fence, but it was too small for him to fit through. The fox was not about to give up so easily. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way!” he thought.
So he decided to fast until he would be skinny enough to fit through the small opening. For three straight days, the wily fox fasted. Finally, he was able to fit through the hole.
Once inside the garden, he ate to his heart’s content. He was the happiest fox around.
When he finally could eat no more, it was time to leave. But try as he might, he couldn’t. He was too fat to go back through the hole! So he had to fast another three days until he could squeeze through again.
When he finally made it outside the fence, he turned and looked back. “Garden, Garden, how beautiful you are!” he said with a shout. “But what good is your beauty when the way I went in is the way I went out!”
We in this world are like the fox in the garden. Most of the things we spend so much time and energy for are things we leave behind. It’s the values we instill in our children and the good deeds we do that are everlasting and worth every effort.
