Short Story: The Bishop's letter

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The old Bishop, Father Fredlick Rovsky, was already retired as a priest, and he was now living in an old people's home for retired priests. He wrote a letter to his brother, a self-proclaimed atheist. Here is his letter: Dear Charles, I have been a believer in God, for all of my long life, and it has been a good life, living it in the service of God. I know that you do not believe in God, but as I get older, and closer to dying, I find myself dreaming about God, in my nightly dreams too. He told me to write this letter to you, which he dictated to me last night, in such a dream. I have always followed my calling to be a priest for God. I have always followed any advice that he has offered to me, like this. I did not need to ask anyone what should I be doing with my life. You know that life beats in tune with you, when you beat in tune with it. This simply means to give life life within you, and then you will give yourself life within life. Do something, and let life animate you in the doing. Even an atheist can live in this way, as surely they believe in the power of life too. God told me to tell you that God is found only in God, but you can be found both within God, of which you remain a part, or as yourself, which is a branched off part of God, existing like a leaf, on a tree. This leaf has life attached to the tree for a while, but it will usually fall off of the tree over time, and so it is with your life. You live, while attached to the overall tree of life, then, when your body drops off, your essence stays with the lifeblood of this tree, and essentially exists within God again, and your part is hidden from you, once more again, until you enter another leaf, next season, within God's tree. For us Christians, this next season, is our new life within God, in his heavenly kingdom. For Buddhists, it might mean another life, reincarnated onto the Earth, again. For atheists, once your leaf falls off of this tree of life, it simply rots away again in the soil around the tree, never to live again in that same way again, but it will help to sustain the tree, even in its decay. I hope that this letter finds you well. I remain, your elder brother, love, Fredlick. Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com The old Bishop still used to give the odd confession to anyone that wanted one, and who had come to visit him in his retirement home.