Stories and Parables

For six years now, the bamboo seed has been the laughingstock of the forest. The farmer planted the seed but nothing sprouted from it. The fern, on the other hand, has grown in leaps and bounds and has already produced many offspring. The luxuriant green plant that never stopped growing and multiplying almost covered the forest floor.

There is not a single day that the ferns did not ridicule the bamboo. "Hey, bamboo. Still sleeping?" the ferns asked followed by howls of laughter.

"I'm fine. I'm growing," the bamboo humbly replied.

"Growing? Did you hear that? He's growing!" A new round of loud laughter echoed in the forest. “Can you see anything above the ground that resembles a growing bamboo?" a fern asked his friends to ridicule the bamboo. Others joined the mockery by looking around as if looking for something invisible.

"I cannot see anything. Is it I'm blind or the bamboo is lying?" another fern answered.

"Well, he really is lying... He's lying under the ground," the forest was again filled with raucous laughter.

"Whatever you say will not change the truth. I am growing, and pretty sure of it," the bamboo said.

"Ok. Whatever," the mother fern replied. At last, the ferns got tired of making fun of the bamboo.

This goes on every day, and there are times when the bamboo thought of quitting. The ridicules are too much to bear especially when he knows that he is doing nothing to harm the ferns. He does not deserve such treatments from his neighbors. He is just growing in a different way. The unfair treatment he receives from his neighbors robs him of the joy for what he is doing.

The following day, a sprout grew from where the bamboo was planted. Surprised, the ferns noticed the growth. However, compared with the ferns it was seemingly small and insignificant. And the bamboo suffered another round of ridicules from the ferns.

Six months later, the bamboo is already more than 100-feet high and his offshoots are now fifteen. The spectacular growth silenced his critics – the ferns.

"How did you do that?" One day, the fern asked the bamboo. "For six years you did not grow, but in only six months, you've already grown too high."

The bamboo replied, "As I told you before, I am growing. Maybe not in your way, but I am growing. In those six years, I am growing roots, while you are growing leaves. And my growth in the last six months is dependent on the roots that I have grown in six years."

"That's brilliant!" the fern admitted. "I wish I could grow my roots like yours."

"That is impossible. We have different nature and purpose. I am created to build, you existed to beautify. I grew roots for that purpose as you grow leaves for your purpose." The ferns look up as the bamboo wisely explains. "We grow differently, because we will be used differently."

The ferns now understand and never will they ridicule another great creation again.