A story is told about a soldier who was finally coming home after having fought in Vietnam. He called his parents from San Francisco. “Mom and Dad, I’m coming home, but I’ve a favor to ask. I have a friend I’d like to bring home with me.”
“Sure,” they replied, “we’d love to meet him.”
“There’s something you should know.” the son continued, “he was hurt pretty badly in the fighting. He stepped on a land mine and lost an arm and a leg. He has nowhere else to go, and I want him to come live with us.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, son. Maybe we can help him find somewhere to live.”
“No, Mom and Dad, I want him to live with us.”
“Son,” said the father, “you don’t know what you’re asking. Someone with such a handicap would be a terrible burden on us. We have our own lives to live, and we can’t let something like this interfere with our lives. I think you should just come home and forget about this guy. He’ll find a way to live on his own.”
At that point, the son hung up the phone. The parents heard nothing more from him.
A few days later, however, they received a call from the San Francisco police. Their son had died after falling from a building, they were told. The police believed it was suicide.
The grief-stricken parents flew to San Francisco and were taken to the city morgue to identify the body of their son.
They recognized him, but to their horror they also discovered something they didn’t know, their son had only one arm and one leg.
Moral of the Story…
The parents in this story are like many of us. We find it easy to love those who are good-looking or fun to have around, but we don’t like people who inconvenience us or make us feel uncomfortable. We would rather stay away from people who aren’t as healthy, beautiful, or smart as we are.
Thankfully, there’s someone who won’t treat us that way. Someone who loves us with an unconditional love that welcomes us into the forever family, regardless of how messed up we are.
Tonight, before you tuck yourself in for the night, say a little prayer that God will give you the strength you need to accept people as they are, not as you think they should be, and to help us all be more understanding of those who are different from us!!!
Take time to think about this…….
[source: http://www.citehr.com/121018-pls-do-read-very-touching-story.html]
Chinese version:
这是一个甫自越战归来的士兵的故事。他从旧金山打电话给他的父母，告诉他们：“爸妈，我回来了，可是我有个不情之请。我想带一个朋友同我一起回家。”
“当然好啊！”他们回答“我们会很高兴见到的。”
不过儿子又继续下去“可是有件事我想先告诉你们，他在越战里受了重伤，少了一条胳臂和一只脚，他现在走投无路，我想请他回来和我们一起生活。”
“儿子，我很遗撼，不过或许我们可以帮他找个安身之处。”父亲又接着说“儿子，你不知道自己在说些什么。像他这样残障的人会对我们的生活造成很大的负担。我们还有自己的生活要过，不能就让他这样破坏了。我建议你先回家然后忘了他，他会找到自己的一片天空的。”
就在此时，儿子挂上了电话，他的父母再也没有他的消息了。
几天后，这对父母接到了来自旧金山警局的电话，告诉他们亲爱的儿子已经坠楼身亡了。警方相信这只是单纯的自杀案件。于是他们伤心欲绝地飞往旧金山，并在警方带领之下到停？间去辨认儿子的遗体。
那的确是他们的儿子没错，但惊讶的是儿子居然，只有一条胳臂和一条腿。
故事中的父母就和我们大多数人一样。要去喜爱面貌姣好或谈吐风趣的人很容易，但是要喜欢那些造成我们不便和不快的人却太难了。我们总是宁愿和那些不如我们健康，美丽或聪明的人保持距离。
然而感谢上帝，有些人却不会对我们如此残酷。他们会无怨无悔地爱我们，不论我们多么糟总是愿意接纳我们。今晚在你入睡之前，向上帝祷告请赐给你力量去接纳他人，不论他们是怎么样的人；请帮助我们了解那些不同于我们的人。
[source: http://www.banbijiang.com/yipingushi/5132.html]