There once was a land that was so isolated that its inhabitants believed the mountains surrounding their

little valley formed the edge of the world. And for them it did. Once in a blue moon someone would venture beyond the mountains and come back with fantastic stories about what theyd seen and experienced, but their reports were routinely dismissed as fabrications and quickly forgotten.

Cuenta una leyenda que hubo una vez cierta comarca tan aislada geogrficamente que sus habitantes estaban convencidos de que las cumbres que rodeaban su estrecho valle constituan el confn del mundo. Muy de cuando en cuando algn osado se aventuraba ms all de los cerros circundantes y retornaba con historias fantsticas de lo que haba visto y experimentado. Sin embargo, las crnicas de aquellos viajeros eran acogidas con total escepticismo y consideradas inventos que a poco se olvidaban.

Life in that inward-looking little land was difficult, but the people had become so accustomed to the daily struggle that most of the time they just accepted it. Life got really hard, however, when the river would suddenly overflow without warning and bury their village in mud, or their crops would mysteriously catch fire in the night, or the water from their wells made them and their animals deathly sick.

La vida en aquel terruo volcado sobre s mismo no era fcil. Pero los pobladores, largamente acostumbrados a los rigores cotidianos, vivan resignados a su suerte. Eso s, las cosas se ponan peliagudas cuando sin ninguna advertencia el ro se desbordaba y anegaba el pueblo, cubrindolo de lodo; o cuando misteriosamente los cultivos se incendiaban en la noche; o cuando el agua de los pozos enfermaba tanto a los vecinos como a sus animales.

Then one day a stranger came and told them more fantastic stories about a wonderful kingdom beyond the mountains, but they laughed him to scorn. They also didnt believe him when he said that the flash floods, mysterious fires and poisoned wells were the work of a dark prince who ruled another notso-wonderful kingdom beyond the mountains, and that he the strangerhad come to teach them how to defend themselves against the dark princes attacks. After awhile the stranger left and they never heard from him again. And to this day the people of that land continue to struggle, as they always have. Un da lleg a aquel paraje un forastero y les relat historias fabulosas de un reino de indescriptible belleza que se extenda al otro lado de los cerros. Fieles a su costumbre, los lugareos se burlaron estrepitosamente de l. Tampoco le dieron crdito cuando les revel que las riadas, los misteriosos incendios y los pozos contaminados eran obra de un malvado prncipe que gobernaba otro reino ms bien lbrego ubicado tambin ms all de las montaas, y que l el forastero haba ido con la misin de ensearles a defenderse de aquel oscuro personaje. Transcurrido cierto tiempo, el forastero se march, y nunca ms supieron de l. Y hasta el da de hoy las gentes de aquella comarca siguen lidiando con su ingrata realidad.

Jesus is a lot like the stranger in that story, except that we will never hear the last from Him. He came to make our lives better, He wants to reveal to us the secrets of the spirit world, and Hes always just a prayer away.

Digamos que Jess es como el forastero del cuento, con una salvedad: que l nunca nos abandona a nuestra suerte. Vino ms bien para enriquecer nuestra vida. Quiere revelarnos los secretos del mundo del espritu, y para comunicarnos con l tenemos la oracin.

Created by www.freekidstories.org Art and text The Family International