The Candle Boy

This story is shared with us by a reader of our 101 Magic Seeds community.
It seems that it was first shared by a person named Shreya Jhamtani.
Shreya was 9 when the teacher told the class the below story.
Enjoy your read below.

In his mid-thirties, an uneducated man, Joe, found himself slowly beginning
to resent his monotonous, tedious life as a sweeper in a small lonely church
on the countryside. Fed up with his boring life, he plucked up his courage
and confronted the Father of the church.

Joe: “I do not like being the sweeper anymore, father. I envy the candle boys.
Their job is much more exciting than mine. Can you please make me a candle boy?”

Father: “Joe, my son, I have tried to tell you this many times but I will say it again.
Candle boys have to greet people and they do so by conversing with them.
My son, you are not educated and I’m afraid I cannot let you
greet our visitors using broken English. It is not your fault son,
but I cannot make you a candle boy.”

Joe: “I want to leave then. I don’t want to live here and work as a sweeper anymore.”

Father: “Son! You are living in God’s home and get two meals a day,
what more do you want? Don’t leave son. You will regret it.”

Joe was stubborn and hell-bent on finding the happiness and satisfaction he long wanted.
After many failed attempts at trying to make him stay, Father finally let him go.

It took Joe less than a few minutes to pack up all his possessions and leave.
He walked for hours and hours and kept telling himself how happy he was
to leave this church that was in the middle of nowhere.
Hours later, he was very thirsty. But there was nothing around him.
Not one shop. And it suddenly occurred to him…

“I should perhaps open a small stall! One that sells water!
Hundreds of visitors come all the way to visit the church,
I am sure they too like me get thirsty on their way there and back.”

Soon after, he opened a small stall by the riverside.

Joe was right.
Hundreds of visitors stopped by during their journey to the faraway countryside.
Over the next few months, Joe also started selling juices, cola and other such drinks.

Joe got luckier by the day, and as the years passed he saw his life turn around.
He did well enough to not only own a small café that served snacks and drinks;
in fact he opened many of them. He now decided to open an account
to save all his fortunes, and so he went to a bank one day.

The bank manager asked him to fill out some forms, as per standard procedure.
Embarrassed, Joe hesitantly told the manager to fill the forms on his behalf,
as he could barely read and understand the language.
To the manager’s surprise…

Manager: “Sir! It’s amazing how you’ve done so well for yourself
even without properly knowing the language!
Just imagine where you would have been today, had you been educated!”

Joe: “I would have been the candle boy in the church.”

My readers, is this food for thought?
Everything happens for a reason.