Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Eternal (06/06/24)
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TITLE: Visit Me | Previous Challenge Entry
By Lynae Fisher
06/13/24 -
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Suddenly, a commotion sounded. A duck that had been sitting by the edge of the road quacked and scuffled away in terror. A hiss and a rattle was heard as the diamond backed serpent struck out. The horse neighed and reared up. The stranger fell off his mount. A second rattler glared at him, ready to strike.
Something whirled through the air. An axe stuck the head of the second snake as the horse stomped down on the first. The stranger looked up. An elderly man stood before his hut, but stood not long. As soon as the axe had done its work, he rushed forward, grabbed the frightened horse by the reigns and quieted him with his calm, commanding voice.
“Are you alright?” asked the man as he approached the stranger.
The stranger’s arm was bleeding badly.
“Let’s get you inside and take care of that arm.”
The man bandaged the stranger’s arm and fed him a hearty meal.
“Thank you,” said the stranger as he prepared to leave the hut, “You saved my life. How can I ever repay you?”
“There is no need,” replied the man.
“But you saved my life. I want to do something for you,” the stranger insisted, as he mounted his steed.
“I am an old man now. I do not live for this world anymore. My reward is in the world to come,” the man replied, handing up the horse’s reigns.
The stranger rode away, but still he thought of what the man had said. What more was there than this world? What could a poor, elderly man have to live for? On he rode to the palace. The servant took his horse to unsaddle and feed him. Going into the palace, he stripped off his rags and put on his princely apparel, for he was the prince returned from his journey in disguise. That night the prince tossed and turned in his luxurious bed for he could sleep wondering what the old man had meant.
The next day, he arose and went to the village to see the man. There he found him sitting on the step of his hut. Hearing the horse approach, he looked up.
“I am the stranger whom you helped yesterday. I did not learn your name,” said the prince.
The man stood up. “My name is Simon.”
“What reward may I give you for saving the life of a prince?” asked the prince.
“Oh prince, as I said yesterday, I need no reward. My reward is not for this world,” replied Simon.
“What do you mean? What else is there beside this world?” inquired the prince.
“There is One who gave all he had to save me from death. I did not even know who he was, but when I learned about Him, I left my way behind to follow Him. He has promised me a mansion where I may live forever. I seek no reward but the one He has for me.”
“But you are old, how much longer will you wait for the promise? How will you live to enjoy it?” asked the bewildered prince.
“My reward is not of this life, but the life beyond the grave! There in His land I will live.”
“Is not death the end of life? Is there another life after the grave?”
“Yes! A life that does not end. It is a life without sorrow or pain.”
The prince scratched his head.
“The same One who saved me would give you life eternal too, if only you accept it.”
“Me? I do not deserve it, wicked as I have lived over this people,” replied the prince hanging his head.
“Deserve it? How can anyone one deserve the gift He offers, least of all such I wretch as I was? Yet He loved me anyway. He died for me! How can I then refuse what He has spent so much to give me?”
Still the Prince shook his head is dismay.
“He died for you.”
The prince looked at his bandaged arm and grasped it. It still ached from his crash the day before.
“You want to repay me?” asked Simon, “Then visit me in my eternal home.”
The prince looked up, with a tear sparkling in his eye, he whispered, “I will.”
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