A young man stands in the village square and announces that he has the most beautiful heart in the whole valley. A large crowd gathers around him and everyone marvels at his heart. It looks perfect. Not a scratch, not even the slightest dent. Everyone agrees that this is the most beautiful heart they have ever seen.
Then an old man steps out of the crowd: “Your heart is nowhere near as beautiful as mine!” The crowd and the young man look at the old man’s heart. It beats strongly, but it is full of scars. Pieces have been broken out and others put in. But they don’t fit exactly and so there are rough edges. In fact, there are several deep holes – whole sections are missing. “You’ve got to be joking,” says the young man. “Compare your heart with mine: mine is perfect and yours is full of holes!”
“Yes,” says the old man, “your heart looks perfect, but I would never swap places with you. Every scar represents a person to whom I have given my love. I gave a piece of my heart and often he gave me a piece of his own heart to fill the empty space in mine. But because the pieces weren’t exactly the same, there were bumps that I cherish because they remind me of the love we shared.” “Sometimes,” he continued, “I’ve given away a piece of my heart without getting a piece back in return. Those are the gaps. Giving love is always a risk. These gaps hurt, but they remind me of the love I feel for these people too. “Do you see now,” the old man asks, “what the beauty of my heart is?”
The young man stands there in silence. Tears run down his cheeks. He reaches for his perfect heart, tears out a piece and offers it to the old man. He takes it, places it in his heart and inserts a piece of his old, scarred heart into the wound in the young man’s heart. It doesn’t fit exactly. And so some rough edges remain. The young man looks at his heart, which is no longer perfect, but still more beautiful than ever. Because love flows into it from the old man’s heart.
This story touches my heart. Because the longing remains for everything to make sense.