A Good Name
The Emperor's Seed
(Author Unknown)
Once there was an emperor in the Far East who was
growing old and knew it was coming time to choose his successor.
Instead of choosing one of his assistants or one of his own children,
he decided to do something different.
He called all the young people in the kingdom
together one day. He said, "It has come time for me to step down and to
choose the next emperor. I have decided to choose one of you." The kids
were shocked! But the emperor continued. "I am going to give each one
of you a seed today. One seed. It is a very special seed. I want you to
go home, plant the seed, water it and come back here one year from
today with what you have grown from this one seed. I will then judge
the plants that you bring to me, and the one I choose will be the next
emperor of the kingdom!"
There was one boy named Ling who was there that
day and he, like the others, received a seed. He went home and
excitedly told his mother the whole story. She helped him get a pot and
some planting soil, and he planted the seed and watered it carefully.
Every day he would water it and watch to see if it had grown.
After about three weeks, some of the other youths
began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to
grow. Ling kept going home and checking his seed, but nothing ever
grew. Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by. Still nothing.
By now others were talking about their plants but
Ling didn't have a plant, and he felt like a failure. Six months went
by, still nothing in Ling's pot. He just knew he had killed his seed!
Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Ling
didn't say anything to his friends, however. He just kept waiting for
his seed to grow.
A year finally went by and all the youths of the
kingdom brought their plants to the emperor for inspection. Ling told
his mother that he wasn't going to take an empty pot. But she
encouraged him to go, and to take his pot, and to be honest about what
happened. Ling felt sick to his stomach, but he knew his mother was
right. He took his empty pot to the palace.
When Ling arrived, he was amazed at the variety
of plants grown by all the other youths. They were beautiful, in all
shapes and sizes. Ling put his empty pot on the floor and many of the
other kids laughed at him. A few felt sorry for him and just said, "Hey
nice try."
When the emperor arrived, he surveyed the room
and greeted the young people. Ling just tried to hide in the back. "My,
what great plants, trees and flowers you have grown," said the emperor.
"Today, one of you will be appointed the next emperor!"
All of a sudden, the emperor spotted Ling at the
back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered his guards to bring him
to the front. Ling was terrified. "The emperor knows I'm a failure!
Maybe he will have me killed!"
When Ling got to the front, the Emperor asked his
name. "My name is Ling," he replied. All the kids were laughing and
making fun of him. The emperor asked everyone to quiet down. He looked
at Ling, and then announced to the crowd, "Behold your new emperor! His
name is Ling!" Ling couldn't believe it. Ling couldn't even grow his
seed. How could he be the new emperor?
Then the emperor said, "One year ago today, I
gave everyone here a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water
it, and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds
which would not grow. All of you, except Ling, have brought me trees
and plants and flowers. When you found that the seed would not grow,
you substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Ling was the only
one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it.
Therefore, he is the one who will be the new emperor!"
"A good name is to be more desired than great riches" Proverbs 22:1 (NASB)