Faced with setbacks in life, different people resort to different means to solve problems at hand, and those with faith go one step beyond surrendering to the divine, seeking his mercy. But is our faith truly unshakable? And do we truly, wholeheartedly believe that God is sheltering us from all adversities, at all times?
This tale is about a little boy who went around every shop in the hopes of finding a cure for his uncle and asked: “Do you sell God?”
The tale goes back to the time around the early 20th century, in a small town, somewhere in the Western United States where a 10-year-old boy held a penny in his hand and approached every shop owner along a street and asked: “Excuse me, Sir. Do you sell God?”
Thinking the boy was pulling a prank, store owners would chase him out. This was the general response he got throughout the day. However, the adamantly determined boy didn’t give up. All day long, he walked in and out of stores seeking an opportunity to buy a little “God” with his humble penny.
As night fell, the little boy visited another store—it was the sixty-ninth shop—and repeated the same question to a silver-haired storekeeper: “Excuse me, Sir. Do you sell God here?”
The storekeeper, an old man, with a kind, gentle look in his eyes smiled and replied: “Tell me, child, why do you want to buy God?”
Finally, someone responded to the boy’s question with compassion. Touched, and with tears rolling down his cheeks, the boy relayed his story to the storekeeper.
The boy’s parents had passed away when he was still a toddler. And he lived with his loving uncle, who worked at a construction site. Unfortunately, his uncle had gotten injured at work and was unconscious. The doctors told the boy that only God could save his uncle. Hearing that, he thought God might be a wonderful thing and innocently believed: “If I buy some God and let my uncle eat a piece, his injuries will heal.”
Tears welled up in the storekeeper’s eyes as he listened to the boy’s plight. “How much do you have?” he lovingly asked the child.
“A penny,” the boy answered.
“Child, the price of God is exactly a penny!” he said.
The boy placed his precious penny in the storekeeper’s hand, and the old man wasted no time in retrieving the magical bottle of “God’s kiss” from the shelf. He gave the bottle to the child and said: “Take it, boy! When your uncle drinks this bottle of ‘God,’ he will be fine.”
Ecstatic, he held “God” tightly in his arms and ran to the hospital as fast as he could. “Uncle, I bought ‘God’ back and you will get well soon,” the boy shouted joyfully to his uncle as he walked into the hospital ward.
The following day, a medical team visited the hospital to see patients including the little boy’s uncle. Under their care and treatment, the boy’s uncle gradually recovered. However, when the uncle saw the medical expenses marked as “paid,” he was in disbelief. The hospital informed him that an elderly rich man had invited the team of doctors and had already settled the payment.
It turned out that the storekeeper who sold the bottle of “God’s kiss” was a millionaire and enjoyed spending his free time at one of his stores. Excited, both the uncle and the young boy went to the shop to meet the man, but the owner was away and had left a letter for them. The message read:
This humbling tale serves as a reminder that miracles—in any form—can happen when we believe in the power of goodness and in the universal values of truth, justice, and kindness. So until next time, cherish and be thankful for your very own bottle of “God’s kiss”!
