Atheist in the Forest
On a Glorious Fall afternoon, an atheist was out walking through the woods...
"What majestic trees!", he thought.
"What powerful rivers!
...and what beautiful animals!"
...he mused to himself, as he walked along the forest path.
As he passed alongside a river, he thought he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him. He turned to look, and was aghast to see a 7-foot grizzly bear charging towards him.
He ran as fast as he could up the path. He looked over his shoulder & saw that the bear was rapidly closing in on him.
He looked over his shoulder again, and the bear was even closer. In his haste to escape, he tripped and fell to the ground. As he rolled over to pick himself up, he saw that the bear was right on top of him, reaching out for him with his huge left paw and raising his right paw to strike him.
At that instant the Atheist cried out, "Oh my God!"
...Time Stopped.
...The bear froze.
...The forest was silent.
In that instant a bright light shone down upon the man, and a voice came out of the sky...
"You deny my existence for all these years, you teach others that I don't exist, and you even credit all of creation to mere cosmic accident. And NOW ...you expect me to help you out of this predicament? ...Am I now to count you as a true believer...?"
The atheist looked directly into the light, "It would be hypocritical of me to suddenly ask you to treat me as a Christian now, but could you... would you perhaps...
make the BEAR a Christian"?
"Very Well," said the voice.
...And the light went out. ...And the sounds of the forest resumed.
...And in that instant, the bear dropped his right paw, brought both paws up together, bowed his head & spoke:
"Lord bless this food, which I am about to receive from thy bounty, through Christ our Lord, Amen."