Stone Soup for God's Children

Our mom used to tell us lots of stories when we were little. This was one of my favorite stories.

Once upon a time, there was a famine in the land. People hoarded their food and hid it from neighbours and friends. One day, a stranger arrived in the village, all hungry and dishevelled. He went from door to door looking for someone to receive him and for something to eat. One after the other, the villagers told him they too were starving and so could not help him.

It was not until he reached the last house in the village that the poor woman who lived there told him that all she had left was water but he was welcome to share the water. He said that was more than enough. Then he told her that he had a magic stone with which he could make enough soup to feed the whole village. The starving old woman was excited and went to alert her neighbours. The stranger filled a large pot with the water and threw a round shiny stone into it. Villagers supplied the firewood and surrounded the large cooking pot to see the miracle of the Stone Soup.

The Stone Soup cooked and the hungry villages waited. Then the stranger tasted the cooking soup and said loudly, "Ahhh!, I love this Stone Soup. Of course, Stone Soup with a little cabbage is hard to beat." Soon a villager approached hesitantly, holding a cabbage he had retrieved from its hiding place. He gave it to the stranger to add to the pot. "Wonderful!" cried the stranger, "I once had some Stone Soup with cabbage which had some onions in it that made it fit for a king!" Soon a second villager appeared with some onions and garlic for the soup. On and on he went, through "If only we had a few potatoes...How wonderful it might be with a couple of carrots" and so on. At last, there was a delicious meal for all.

The villagers offered the stranger a great deal of money for the magic stone, but he refused to sell it and travelled on the next day. He probably made Stone Soup at the next village, too. Soon the famine ended but the people of the village never forgot about the finest soup they ever had.

When each of us contributes a little, we can feed the whole world village.

Fr Ernest Munachi Ezeogu

Shared by Sue