From: Illusions, the Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, by Richard Bach
Once there lived a village of creatures along the bottom of a
great crystal river. The current of the river swept silently over them
all -- young and old, rich and poor, good and evil, the current
going its own way, knowing only its own crystal self.
Each creature in its own manner clung tightly to the twigs and rocks of the
river bottom, for clinging was their way of life, and resisting the current
what each had learned from birth.
But one creature said at last, "I am tired of clinging. Though I cannot
see it with my eyes, I trust that the current knows where it is going. I shall
let go, and let it take me where it will. Clinging, I shall die of
boredom."
The other creatures laughed and said, "Fool! Let go, and that current you
worship will throw you tumbled and smashed across the rocks, and you will die
quicker than boredom!"
But the one heeded them not, and taking a breath did let go, and at once was
tumbled and smashed by the current across the rocks. Yet in time, as the
creature refused to cling again, the current lifted him free from the bottom,
and he was bruised and hurt no more. And the creatures downstream, to whom he
was a stranger, cried, "See a miracle! A creature like ourselves, yet he
flies! See the Messiah, come to save us all!"
And the one carried in the current said, "I am no more Messiah than you.
The river delights to lift us free, if only we dare let go. Our true work is
this voyage, this adventure."
But they cried all the more, "Savior!" all the while clinging to
their rocks, and when they looked again he was gone, and they were left alone
making legends of a Savior.