My brother, Randy Gallop, shared the following Parable (story) with me. I’ve listed some insights that he, a few others, and I received from it. Please, let me know what you get out of it.

There was a certain village whose cisterns were almost empty and in need of a new well.  All the wells their ancestors had dug were dried up.

The elders of the village called for prayer. (The women retreated to one hut and the men to another to seek God.) After three days of prayer, no one had heard anything from God. 

An older boy, about fifteen years old, walked out of the prayer and grabbed a shovel and pick, and went to the Eastside, where their ancestors had dug wells, and begin to dig. 

The elders of the village followed behind him and asked if he had heard from God. He answered, no. They asked him to come back to prayer since he had not heard from God.

He said he prayed that wherever he begin to dig that God would give him water there. (The villagers had been praying for the Lord to show them where to dig.) The elders said it doesn’t work that way with God and that they need God to show them where to dig. 

The older boy replied, “I belong to the Lord, the earth belongs to the Lord and the water belongs to the Lord and, if He can put me wherever He wants me, then He can put the water wherever He wants.”

The elders were visibly upset and went back to prayer and the older boy continued to dig. Some of the other boys in the village begin to help him to dig. That day they dug as deep as their ancestors had dug, but found no water. After that, the other boys grew frustrated and did not return to help.

That night the older boy said to God, “I will dig twice as deep as the ancestors.” 

The next morning, while digging, he found a great diamond, big enough to make him wealthy. He took and wrapped the diamond in a cloth, hid it, and continued to dig twice as deep as his ancestors, but found no water.

He prayed again that night, saying to God that even if he’s tempted with a diamond, he will not stop digging for water; that he didn’t start digging the well for money, but to find water and to preserve life. 

“Lord tomorrow I will dig three times as deep as our ancestors.”

The next day, digging and digging, the pick hits a solid rock. He pulls himself out of the well heartbroken. He was so disappointed. Digging the well wasn’t so hard when he had help, but now it had become twice as hard having to dig by himself. He could see and feel the blisters on his hands.

When he returned home he cried out to God, wanting to know why he had hit a rock and didn’t find any water? He said he would keep digging even if he had to dig around the rock. 

“Lord if I have to dig around the rock with my bare hands, I’ll do it.”

Even the rock didn’t dissuade him from going back. He got up that morning and again begin to dig. The villagers, including his own father, angrily came to him and accused him of being the reason why God was not answering their prayer to show them where to dig for water.

They took and threw him into the well that he had been digging. They heard a splash sound! Water! They immediately pulled the older boy out of the well. It turned out to be an artesian well! All that night God had begun to fill that well up.

As the villagers were rejoicing over receiving the water, they didn’t realize they were losing the true gift. The older boy took the diamond he had found and left the village.

Some Insights:

1. Stay true to the original purpose, even when tempted, misunderstood, or things get hard.
2. They lost the teacher.
3. Personal faith.
4. People always looking for someone else to blame.
5. Have to fall on the rock, Jesus the Christ.
6. Out of your belly living water flows.
7. Ask the Lord to bless the work of your hands.
8. “And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” (Rom. 5:5)
9. A hidden treasure in secret places.
10. Persevere.
11. Go for it.
12. The contrast between action prayer and static prayer.
13. People like a new thing or new ministry until it doesn’t turn out the way they thought.
14. Don’t quit.
15. Not mechanical but dynamic prayer.
16. At a 4-way stop, not a stoplight.
17. Sometimes, people think you’re digging your own grave by trusting God.
18. Don’t be so quick to judge.
19. Faith without work is dead.
20. God had answered their prayer. They had not understood the answer.

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