THE MAN WHO HAD IT ALL AND KEPT IT TO HIMSELF!

Last Saturday I was in a small provincial town and I saw a crowd gathered around a bookstall on the side of the road.  Of course, I joined them.  I can never resist the lure of a book, particularly a children’s book. 

To my delight, I spied a secondhand copy of a book written for children by Oscar Wilde.  “I bet it’s got ‘The Selfish Giant’ in it,”  I thought to myself.  That was my all-time favourite story as a child, and it still is! I opened it eagerly. There it was in the centre of the book, illustrated with a very, very cross giant, outside his garden,  threatening the children who used to play there during his long absence visiting the Cornish ogre.

“What are you doing here?” he cried in a very gruff voice, and the children ran away.

“MY OWN GARDEN IS MY OWN GARDEN,  ANYONE CAN UNDERSTAND THAT!” HE MUTTERED.  “I WILL ALLOW NOBODY TO PLAY IN IT BUT MYSELF.”

So he built a high wall all around it, and put up a big notice:

 

TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED

 

                                                                                                                              

He was a very selfish giant.

The poor children had nowhere to play.  It was too dangerous in the road, and too dirty in the lanes, so they were very sad.

They said to each other: “How happy we were there!”  And they went away.

I’m sure you know what happened next.  Spring came. All over the country there were beautiful blossoms and early flowers.  The birds sang their delight at the return of Spring, but in the Selfish Giant’s garden it was still Winter! The birds didn’t want to sing in that garden because the children were banned from it, and the trees forgot to blossom. The only ones who were pleased were the Snow and the Frost.  “Spring has forgotten this garden,” they cried. “So we will live here all the year round!”

So the snow covered all the ground with her white mantle,,  and the Frost painted all the trees silver.. Then they invited the North Wind, and he roared all day about the garden.  And he blew the chimney pots down.

Then the Hail came. He broke most of the slates in the roof because he rattled for three hours every day, and went round and round the garden as fast as he could!  He was all dressed in grey and his breath was like ice.

“I cannot understand why the Spring is so late! “ said the Selfish Giant. “I hope there will soon be a change in the weather.”

But it never came, and Summer and Autumn kept away too. Autumn gave lovely fruits to every garden except his. “He is too selfish”  she said.

SO IT WAS ALWAYS WINTER THERE (and never Christmas!)

One day the Selfish Giant, all wrapped in furs, looked out at his cold, white garden, and he saw something wonderful. All the Winter things had stopped, and he heard beautiful music.

What did he see?

Through a little hole in the wall, the children had crept in, and they were sitting in the branches of the trees.  All the trees were so glad that they blossomed and the birds were flying about twittering with delight.

Only in one corner it was still Winter. A little boy was crying . He was so small that he could not reach up to the branches of the tree, and he was wandering round it, crying bitterly.

“Oh, that poor boy!” the Giant said (he was no longer selfish because his heart had melted) and he hurried down to the garden and lifted the little boy into the tree. But the other children were frightened when they saw the giant, and they ran away, and the garden became Winter again.

“Now I know why there has been no Spring in my garden”  the giant said. “How selfish I have been!  I will knock down the wall, and my garden shall be the children’s playground for ever and ever.”

He kept his promise, and the children played with him in the garden which became the most beautiful one in the district.

But the giant always looked for the little boy whom he had put in the tree. He never came back, and the Giant was so sad.  He longed to see him, for he loved him best of all.

One Winter evening he looked out of his window as he was dressing.  Suddenly he rubbed his eyes. He couldn’t believe it. In the furthest  corner of the garden was a tree covered with beautiful white blossom, even though it was Winter. Underneath it stood the little boy he had loved.

So he ran downstairs with great joy, and hastened across the grass to the child. But when he got close, his face went all red with anger. He said:  

“WHO HAS DARED TO WOUND THEE?  TELL ME WHO HE IS AND I WILL KILL HIM!”

For on the child’s hands were the prints of two nails, and the prints of two nails were on his feet.

“No”, said the Child. “ these are the wounds of love.”

“Who are you?” said the Giant, and a strange awe fell on him, and he knelt before the little child.

The Child smiled at the Giant and said to him:

“You once let me play in your garden. Today you shall come with me to my garden, which is Paradise.”

When the children ran in that afternoon, they found the Giant lying dead under the tree, all covered with white blossoms.

Giants are often used in folklore to portray wicked , selfish or powerful people who bully others.  Here we have a portrait of one who met Christ, and became transformed through love.

He came in contact with the innocence and simple happiness of children, and his own heart was changed by them. 

Jesus promised us through the prophet Ezechiel:

“I will give you a heart of flesh, and take away your heart of stone."

Children usually have hearts of flesh.  They respond to love like sunflowers opening up to the sun   They don’t remember past hurts unless they are taught to be bitter.  Bitterness is not a child-like virtue.  Trust and love are.  They are only crushed out by insensitive adults.   

Jesus told the apostles that, in order to get to Heaven, we must become child-like.

The selfish giant learned the lesson.

Can we?