An atheist was taking a walk through the woods.
"What majestic trees!
What powerful rivers! What beautiful animals!" he
said to himself. As he
was walking alongside the river, he heard a rustling
in the bushes behind
him.
He turned to look and saw a 7-foot grizzly charge
towards him. He ran
as fast as he could up the path. He looked over his
shoulder and saw that
the bear was closing in on him. He looked over his
shoulder again, and the
bear was even closer. His heart was pumping
frantically, and he tried to run
even faster.
He tripped and fell on the ground. When he rolled over
to pick himself up,
he saw the bear right on top of him, reaching for him
with his left paw and
raising his right paw to strike him. At that instant,
the atheist cried out:
"Oh my God!" Time stopped. The bear froze.
The forest was silent. As a
bright light shone upon the man, a voice came out of
the sky:
"You deny My existence for all of these years,
teach others I don't exist,
and even credit creation to a cosmic accident. Do you
expect Me to help you
out of this predicament? Am I to count you now as a
believer?
The atheist
looked directly into the light, "It would be
hypocritical of me to suddenly
ask You to treat me as a Christian now, but perhaps
You could you make the
BEAR a Christian?"
"Very well," said
the voice.
The light went out, and the
sounds of the forest resumed. And then the bear
dropped his right paw,
brought both paws together, bowed his head and spoke:
"Lord, bless this
food which I am about to receive and for which I am
truly thankful."
