The troubles started with the old man's cow. It got really sick, very suddenly. We all felt sorry for him. Things were hard and none of us could afford to lose an animal. The vet came out and wandered around the beast, looking and touching and measuring, and his conclusion was that it wasn't promising. I commiserated with the old man. “Looks bad,” he admitted. “Tough loss,” I replied. He looked at me and said, “There's always hope”.
The cow died.
A little while after that we began watching the weather with concern. The clouds were full and black and the harvest was just around the corner. A pounding rain would be bad news for most of us. The old man had been around for a while, brought in a lot of harvests, so I asked him what he thought. “Looks bad,” he agreed. “We're in trouble,” I sighed. He looked and me and said, “There's always hope”.
The heavy rain came and we suffered.
Some of us went hungry that season, but we made it through. All of us, except the old man's son, that is. The doctor came with a smile on his face, and left with grim and stony features. “What did he say?” I asked the old man. “Looks bad,” the old man said. I didn't say anything else. He looked at me and said, “There's always hope.”
His son died.
The rains continued. The dams were full, but so were the rivers. It wouldn't take much more for them to break their banks and then we'd all be in trouble, even the smart ones who had questioned the wisdom of settling in the foothills. I asked the old man if he'd ever seen anything like this. He admitted that he hadn't. “Looks bad,” he nodded. I wondered aloud whether the storms would break before we did. He looked at me and said, “There's always hope.”
The floods came. I drowned.
The first thing I did after I walked through the Pearly Gates was sit on a log next to Jesus and begin complaining. “The old man's crazy,” I ranted, “Bad things just kept happening and he just refused to face up to it. He lived in denial of the truth. At first it was inspiring, but then it just became annoying.”
I asked Jesus, “Do you think he'll ever realise that life is actually a bleak and difficult thing?”
Jesus looked at me and said, “There's always hope.”