It was a glorious Sunday. People were busy going to the Church and some with other celebrations. But slowly the sun descends below the horizon creating a romantic sunset with red and orange color in the sky. It’s rays are scattered all around the earth’s atmosphere. It has been said that sunsets are a literal end of the day and become the symbols of rest, peace and harmony. At some point, we have a feeling that the whole scene is flooded with hope, the promise of a new day. But sometimes, the dark world behind the sunset rejuvenates and the rest of the night perhaps becomes rather gloomy, fearful, flooded with dark clouds.

                        Ping Pong was a smart guy who was also known as the Monkey Man. He was compared with the Chinese Zodiac monkey, very intelligent, brash, cocky and cutie, having incredible talents. He was rather short and fragile sculpted to do his business and skilled in climbing trees, jumping from one building to another. He could run like the wind and climb the wall of a building like the spider man. His only aim was to enter the houses through the windows and snatch away the jewellery, smart phones, purses and other valuables. No body could catch him nor the police arrest him.

                        People of Zing Zong village were aware that something unwanted things might happen that evening. The villagers have already slept many sleepless nights. And now they no longer could tolerate this. They made a squad of volunteers to guard the village all around. It was a time of twilight,  that  magical time between daylight  and darkness , the best time for the monkey man to start his hunting. Suddenly, they could hear a shouting of a house-wife, “Help, help, help, catch, catch, catch, here he is!” She reported to the villagers that she saw something like a fox running into the woods. But it wasn’t a fox for sure, it was the monkey man, the thief. Some of the neighbours along with the squad party ran into the woods following the monkey man with sticks and shovels and torches in hand. Soon all the  house-wives, the maid servants with brooms still in hand, the young and the old in the neighbourhood also joined the chase. Even the dogs chased barking ahead of the people. The ducks and the geese flew squawking and the hens cackling all the way. The scene was exactly that of Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales” in telling the story of the fox running away with Chanticleer on his back. It was like a unique procession showing the unity in diversity. Pong ran faster than ever like the wind. But however, he had no way of escape. He was blocked from all sides by both the human and the animal army. But all of a sudden to their surprise, he climbed a huge and tall alpine eucalyptus tree like a spider and took his seat on a branch and rested comfortably. The mob tried to throw stones at him, some brought long sticks to beat him down but failed. Then he gave them a thumbs-down , a sign of total trouncing  to the point of humiliation. He might have felt triumphant in his heart and  made a sardonic smile. By the time, some young people brought a big Chain Saw Machine to cut down the tree. Seeing this, Pong was sore afraid or might be too scared and   quickly started climbing to a higher position. People asked him to come down and surrender himself. But he didn’t do that. They warned him about the danger of the tree felling and  the consequence there of. People started cutting the tree but instead of swing straight down, Pong again started climbing up higher and higher; the more they cut the tree, the higher he went. The clock from the High Tower struck 12.  And the rest of the story you know. The tree fell and he died.

Question: What moral and spiritual lesson  do  you derive from this story?

Jesus said in Matthew 7:26,27,

“….. everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”(NIV)

Name of the Author of this article: Dr. Surya Kumar Daimari, MA,M.Ed, PGDTE,D.Min.(Doctor of Ministry)
The author is a freelance writer.
Book published: The Names of the Believers in the Bible in Types and Symbols .
https://outskirtspress.com/thenamesofthebelieversinthebible