TOUCHING TRIBUTE TO MOTHER’S LOVE.
“I once read the story of an angel who stole out of heaven and came to this world one bright sunshiny day; roamed through the field, forest, city and hamlet, and as the sun went down, plumed his wings for the return flight. The angel said: ‘Now that my visit is over, before I return I must gather some mementoes of my trip.’ He looked at the beautiful flowers in the garden and said, ‘How lovely and fragrant,’ and plucked the rarest roses, made a bouquet, and said, ‘I see nothing more beautiful and fragrant than these flowers.’ The angel looked further and saw a bright-eyed, rosy-cheeked child, and said, ‘That baby is prettier than the flowers; I will take that, too;’ and, looking beyond to the cradle, he saw a mother’s love pouring out over her babe like a gushing spring, and the angel said, ‘The mother’s love is the prettiest thing I have seen; I will take that too.’ And with these three treasures the heavenly messenger winged his flight to the pearly gates, saying: ‘Before I go in I must examine the mementoes of my trip to the earth.’ He looked at the flowers; they had withered. He looked at the baby’s smile; it had faded. He looked at the mother’s love; it shone in all its pristine beauty. Then he threw away the withered flowers, cast aside the faded smile, and with the mother’s love pressed to his breast, swept through the gates into the city, shouting that the only thing he had found that would retain its fragrance from earth to heaven is a mother’s love.”