Praying For Goodness

My name is Manikin; I am not praying for something, I am not praying for wants. I am not praying to make God happy. God is doing fine without my thanks.

 

I pray because I am grateful for what I have. I am able to bend. My wood is smooth, without dust. I pray because I live in a nice house with Boltman, Saxman, and the humans: Phototrain, and his daughter.

 

I have a nice job, being the model for Phototrain's lighting practice. I have peaceful, contented days. I do not care about Heaven, I do not care about being rewarded for my faith.

I pray because faith is good for me. As a wooden man, I have learnt patience. I think about the life I have, here on the mantle. Human's sometimes think I am not important, that I do not count, because my heart is wooden. I am kind. I am grateful. These are some of the things, I think faith is made up of.

 

Human's think there is no heaven for me. I would say this to those human's who think that: Why are you so sure that there is a heaven for you? You live your life as a good person here on earth, just so that you can go to heaven? Why not live as a good person, just to be good, just to become better? Why not live your life without the promise of heavenly gain? Why does there have to be something in it for you?

 

Why not live your life to become like Buddha, or Jesus, or Mohammed? Why not live to be kind, to be compassionate, to care. Why do you think you are so right about everything? Even the prophets stumbled. Sometimes, it even appeared as if they had lost their faith.

 

Given the choice to be kind or to be right, I pray to be kind. Righteousness is not steeped in being right, or some flimsy, promise of a luxurious afterlife.

 

Faith is related to goodness. Faith is the reward for being good. Faith is not racism. It is not about looking down on anything, or anyone. It is not about hurting and punishing those who are different from you. It is about helping those who are different, those who are beyond help, those who have no hope. It is about helping.

 

There was a reason that the good people, the Jesus's, the Buddha's, the Mohammed's, were kind to the lepers, the prostitutes, the infirm, and all the other outcasts.

 

I believe that when they were kind, when they helped those less fortunate, when they raised up the most unfortunate among us, they raised up themselves, they raised us all upwards. Maybe by helping others, we can learn that we help ourselves also.

 

Faith is not about looking down, it is about looking up, treating everyone and everything, with a healthy kindness, a respect.

 

I pray because I have a gift; I am a woodenman with a vision: I can see. When I sit quietly on the mantle, waiting to be the star of lighting practice, I tell myself to be humble. I hope Boltman and Saxman will get their turn to be the star.

 

That is why I pray, I pray to be good, to live my life well.

 

I don't want heaven ... God, please help me, I do not want baubles and promises of grandeur, God please help me ... do not banish me to heaven, my "heaven" is here!

Let me have my heaven here, on the mantle, in the deeds that I do, every day, one day at a time.

Let goodness be my reward, from you, God. Please keep the glorious, fancy heaven for the others. Let me learn kindness, let me see how to be good, how to live and be happy right here on the mantle.

 

I do not need beautiful temples, I do not need religion, I don't want ... I don't "want". I am not religious, I don't have 'religion'. I am wooden. I have a heart, that lets me see.

 

What I need to do is pray for faith.

A real faith. A quiet, humble, kindness.

 

A faith that does not require me to loudly proclaim how correct my religion is. How wonderful that I belong to the largest church in town. Do not allow me to become a religious showoff.

 

I will sit quietly on the mantle, I will think how I can be good to Boltman and Saxman, not because I think I am better than them. They really do not need my help. Like me, they just need goodness in their being.

 

Phototrain said to his daughter he may get another manikin. That would be good, someone else for Boltman, Saxman, and I to stand with. To enjoy our little lives, here on the fireplace mantle.

 

I will be good, I will help, even if someone hurts me ... I will forgive.

I will not sacrifice my goodness, my compassion, for the misdeeds of others.

 

That is the kind of faith I pray for. I pray, that I will look into my heart, so that I can find the goodness in me. The goodness that you gave the great forests, when you breathed life into them.

That is my heaven, that is your gift to me. To allow me to look into my little heart, and find it full of goodness, your goodness, God, the goodness you shared with me. All I had to do was to want it, to find it.

 

That, is what I pray for. That is what is worth praying for.

 

Perhaps then, the great forests, my ancestors, whom you blessed so many eons ago, will be pleased, that even today, one little descendant, one little wooden man ... found faith inside his little wooden heart, found it by being kind, by being good. That just one little woodenman, like me, was able to make a difference.

All this time, it was sitting quietly inside of me, waiting for me to look into my own heart.

 

That is what I pray for.

 

Thank you God, whoever, or whatever you are, thank you.

 

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