The Perfect Heart
“The Perfect Heart”
One day a young man was standing in the middle of
the town proclaiming that he had the most beautiful
heart in the whole valley. A large crowd gathered
and they all admired his heart for it was perfect.
There was not a mark or a flaw in it. Yes, they all
agreed it truly was the most beautiful heart they
had ever seen. The young man was very proud and
boasted more loudly about his beautiful heart.
Suddenly, an old man appeared at the front of the
crowd and said, “Why your heart is not nearly as
beautiful as mine.”
The crowd and the young man looked at the old man’s
heart. It was beating strongly, but full of scars,
it had places where pieces had been removed and
other pieces put in, but they didn’t fit quite right
and there were several jagged edges. In fact, in
some places there were deep gouges where whole
pieces were missing.
The people stared — how can he say his heart is
more beautiful, they thought?
The young man looked at the old man’s heart and saw
its state and laughed.
“You must be joking,” he said. “Compare your heart
with mine, mine is perfect and yours is a mess of
scars and tears.”
“Yes,” said the old man, “yours is perfect looking
but I would never trade with you. You see, every
scar represents a person to whom I have given my
love - I tear out a piece of my heart and give it to
them, and often they give me a piece of their heart
which fits into the empty place in my heart, but
because the pieces aren’t exact, I have some rough
edges, which I cherish, because they remind me of
the love we shared.”
“Sometimes I have given pieces
of my heart away, and the other person hasn’t
returned a piece of his heart to me. These are the
empty gouges — giving love is taking a chance.
Although these gouges are painful, they stay open,
reminding me of the love I have for these people
too, and I hope someday they may return and fill the
space I have waiting. So now do you see what true
beauty is?”
The young man stood silently with tears running down his cheeks.
He walked up to the old man, reached
into his perfect young and beautiful heart, and
ripped a piece out. He offered it to the old man
with trembling hands.
The old man took his offering, placed it in his
heart and then took a piece from his old scarred
heart and placed it in the wound in the young man’s
heart. It fit, but not perfectly, as there were some
jagged edges.
The young man looked at his heart, not perfect
anymore but more beautiful than ever, since love
from the old man’s heart flowed into his.
They embraced and walked away side by side.
To give the love in our hearts is to give part of ourselves. In this there is the strength of courage, of wisdom, and of happiness.
The strength of courage to give when no return can be guaranteed. Facing the possible loss of a piece of yourself, while being willing to give of yourself nonetheless..
The strength of wisdom to understand the only guarantee of love we have is the love of God. For He is the only one who will love us unconditionally. The rest of mankind has weakness and follies, which prevents their perfect loving of us.
The Strength of happiness in following through on what our heart and convictions lead us to believe. Having the strength to perform great tasks when it would be far easier to play it safe.
Strength of character to not worry what other might say when we give without expecting a return. The strength to value the gift and the receiver more than being the recipient of the gift.
This is truly what love is about. Many hold out giving the love they possess, but to the few: Their family; their spouse; and children. The few who they hope to guarantee a return of love. Like the young man, they take no risk, to retain their perfect heart. These are they who have lost the opportunity for growth in
love. When they hold onto their love, rather than giving away their love, they lose a world of potential in returned love.
We must share our selves if we expect to grow in heart and love. There must be love given without strings or restrictions to all we encounter. No ‘I will give this if….’ conditions.
Too many people think themselves hurt when ‘love’ doesn’t work out or last forever. They look at the pain they are suffering, and not the good and joyful memories.
No piece of shared heart will fit perfectly. Some are too big, other not big enough. But in both cases we owe gratitude to those who were willing to share with us. It is our choice to keep it or toss it away.
Tossing away someone’s shared piece of heart is often our answer when they’ve done something to hurt us. What really happens is we hurt ourselves, tearing out their shared piece from own heart, often doing more damage to our own hearts than they ever did. By removing their shared piece we now have a unfilled hole in our hearts without the hope of a replacement. If we take out too many pieces, we will have a much weakened and rather dysfunctional heart remaining. This is why the best for us to never remove pieces once accepted. We are better off keeping the shared pieces of heart we receive from those who shared their heart with us.
Finding a new ‘love’ will not fill that whole we made in our own heart. For it is required we share pieces of our heart with this new love.
Give freely that you may receive freely.
