When I was a little girl my mother told me an Italian tale I never forget. Here it is.
As you know very well Satan had always been jealous of God. One day he thought he had found the perfect means to show God how stupid and weak he was, how clever he, Satan, was and how God would be obliged to admit that.
�Let �s sew a tunic ! And let �s see who of us will sew the fastest ! � Satan said despisingly.
�As you like," God calmly answered.
And here they are : cutting the cloth, preparing the needles, the threads and so on (of course the tunics would be handmade, the sewing machines didn �t exist at this very moment).
The devil was in a hurry of course and loudly laughed seeing how careful God was in measuring, cutting and so on.
Satan started sewing and had prepared long, very long, very very long threads. He put one in the hole of a needle and here was the dancing of this thin bone dancer through the pieces of cloth.
God wasn �t anxious at all. He quietly sat with the short threads he had prepared. Seeing that Satan loudly burst into laughter �And you really think you �re going to sew fast with these stupid pieces of thread ? Ah Ah ! My victory will be famous ! �
God smiled and didn �t answer. He was just sewing.
�Damnation ! � suddenly yelled Satan. The fact was that his thread, being so long, had now plenty of tight knots impossible to undo. And the more he became nervous and agitated the more new knots were made. He had to cut, to restart, to undo, to ... while God was quietly sewing with his short threads.
Who do you think won ? God of course. He had reflected and remembered that you must do the things step after step with the right stuff. And who do you think was furious and humiliated because he was defeated ? Satan ! And poor one, he didn �t even understand he had childishly and stupidly behaved...
Do you like this tale ? Just tell me your feeling, I �m looking forward to reading one of your child souvenirs.