"Poor Pete"

Here and there among men, there are those who pause in the hurried rush to listen to the call of a life that is more real. How often have we seen them, jostled and ridiculed by their fellows, pushed aside and forgotten. He who sees and hears too much is cursed for a dreamer, a fanatic, or a fool by the mad mob who, having eyes, see not, ears and hear not, and refuse to understand.

We build temples and churches, but will not worship in them. We hire spiritual advisers, but refuse to heed them. We buy bibles, but will not read them. Believing in God, we do not fear Him. Acknowledging Christ, we neither follow nor obey Him. Only when we can no longer strive in the battle for earthly honors or material wealth do we turn to the unseen and more enduring things of life and hear and see the things we have so long refused to consider.

Pete knew a world unseen by us, and we, therefore, fancied ourselves wiser than he. The wind in the pines, the rustle of the leaves, the murmur of a brook, the growl of the thunder, and the voices of the night were all understood and answered by him. The flowers, the trees, the rocks, the hills, the clouds were to him not lifeless things but living friends, who laughed and wept with them.

“Poor Pete,” we said.
Was he in truth poorer or richer than we?

-Harold Bell Wright-