We have to write a fairy tale about our life for Bible class. This is mine. I’m hoping that after reading it, my Bible teacher will have a better understanding of the struggles I went through. Please give me your opinions on it.

The Blue Son

Once upon a time, in a faraway kingdom, there lived a little boy who was the son of two of the noblest doctors in all the land. His parents had become doctors so they could treat all the diseases that were being spread throughout the kingdom. The boy knew there were many sick people and many diseases out there, so he was proud of his parents and what they did.

One day, the boy was with his parents, when they started talking about a disease he had never heard of before. They called it ‘blue skin’. There was something different about this talk though. Normally, they spoke of diseases with compassion, but they spoke of this disease with disdain and hatred. The boy was confused, so he went to the library. He picked out a book, hid in a corner, and read about it. The book said this: “Blue skin is a horrible, fatal disease. It happens when a person decides to rebel against the rules and purposefully be different from everyone else. It is a sign that the affected person is truly evil indeed. In some cases, it is contagious. Blue people are not safe people to have in this kingdom. The only way to treat the disease to send them to a Furnace, where they will stay until the blue skin is burned off their bodies. Avoid them always and remember the best blue person is a dead blue person.” The boy then closed the book and didn’t think of it again.

The boy grew and soon was eleven years old. He liked to play with other kids, but one day, while he was playing he looked at his arm and noticed something. On his arm, there was a tiny patch of blue. He ignored it. A few weeks later, he saw it again and saw the patch of blue was now bigger. He was concerned, but then thought back to the book he read. “People with blue skin are evil people”, he thought to himself. “I’m not an evil person. So I can’t have blue skin.” He smiled to himself. But the patch grew further. In fact, no matter how much the boy ignored it, the patch of blue on his arm continued to grow.

The boy soon knew that he could ignore it no longer. Something was wrong. The blue skin was now covering his arm. He realized it was foolishness to pretend he did not have blue skin. The boy was scared and confused. He didn’t know anyone else who had this. He remembered how his parents spoke of blue skin with such hatred. “They will hate me too if they find out,” the boy said. “I will cause them to lose their job as doctors, and then everyone will hate me.” He was deeply ashamed of himself and though he didn’t understand how the blue skin ended up there, he despised himself all the same.

To protect himself, he wore long sleeves and hoped that nobody ever found out that he had blue skin. But no matter where he went, he was still thinking of his blue skin. He imagined people seeing through his sleeves and looking at his skin. He imagined the blue spreading so much he could not hide it anymore. He imagined being sent to the Furnace if ever anyone found out. Finally, he had enough of his miserable life, so he ran to the edge of a deep ravine. “This blue skin means I am evil and that I will die,” he said to himself. “If that’s true, then I should kill myself now. Why inflict myself upon the world? Why endure this anymore? It will be better if I’m not here.” He was about to jump off, but there was a powerful wind that kept him from moving forward. So he sat at the edge instead, but he still had no peace. When he looked up, he saw only the black smoke of a Furnace rising in the distance. When he looked down, he saw only the sharp rocks at the ravine’s bottom. When he looked around him, he saw only vast emptiness. But he refused to leave his spot at the edge of the ravine. He sat there – alone – for years, trying to fall off, but always being stopped by a powerful wind. And nobody even knew he was there.

Then one day, the King came. He saw the boy sitting there and came to him. The boy tried to turn him away by warning the King that he was an evil boy who was unworthy of love from other people, but the King persisted. The boy could not understand it. He asked the King why he was there. “I know you have blue skin,” he said simply. “And I knew you were out here. Every day I watch you from my castle and whenever you are about to jump into the ravine, I send a wind to save you. I wanted you to know that.” The boy looked at the King with tears in his eyes. He asked why he would save him when he was such an evil boy. The King shook his head. “There are things I care about much more than the color of your arm. What I care about most is your heart. And I see that in your heart is the desire to serve your King. You will not die, but live. Go home, young man. Go home.”

The boy went home very happy, but scared, because he realized that his arm was still blue. But when he thought about the fear and agony he went through when he tried to hide his skin, he knew he had to tell his doctor parents. The fear and agony he felt hiding his skin had caused him to go the ravine. He knew that the only way he could prevent it from happening again was by being honest about his blue arm.

So he went home and while he was very scared, he eventually told his parents that he had blue skin and that the King knew and that he loved him anyway. He ripped off his long sleeves to show them. When they his parents saw this, his mom started crying and his dad took out a book to read to him. “The King did not say that to you,” his dad said. “You are imagining that because you don’t want to be sent to the Furnace. See this book? It says you are evil. Besides, everyone knows blue people are a danger to everyone in the kingdom. You must be sent to the Furnance and have your skin burnt off immediately.” The boy was deeply saddened, but very firm. He said he refused to go to the Furnace. Finally, his dad looked at him sternly and said, “We do not accept this and we will not a blue son in this house.” The boy ran off in tears. Some of his friends were outside and when they saw that he had blue skin on his arm, some of them did not want to be near him anymore. The boy was even more hurt. He ran back home and looked for his sleeves, put them on again, and went back to the ravine. This time, he would jump off, no matter how hard the wind blew. But the wind kept holding him back, no matter how hard the boy fought.

This went on for a few more years. Then the King came riding by again. “What are you doing?” he asked the boy. The boy tearfully explained to the King what happened. The King also cried as he heard the boy tell his story. He held the boy close, the boy’s blue skin touching the skin of the King. “If your parents do not accept you, then I will be your Father. You are now my son and I am proud to call you my own. Never again need you live in fear of rejection, because I will always be here when you need me, my child.” The King then lifted the boy onto his horse. The boy wrapped his blue arm around his new Father and the two rode to the castle, the boy’s new home. And the wind stopped blowing, for the boy never returned to the ravine again.

That’s very beautiful and powerful, gettingthere. Thank you for sharing it with us. And yes, it’s important not to believe everything or everyone around us.

Awwww… that’s lovely, avb…and true. I’d have you as my son too, gettingthere – anyday!

Awwww… that’s lovely, avb…and true. I’d have you as my son too, gettingthere – anyday!

…and we’d both be extremely proud parents.

Hah, thanks you guys.

My parents never actually disowned. What I wrote was how I interpreted their words – what I heard in my heart when they spoke to me. Things are alright now – not concerning this issue, no, but in general everyday life there is no problem.

I enjoyed your fable, getting there. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Thought you’d find that amusing!

Maybe its done its work gettingthere….dont be too disappointed…..you have lots of opportunity to make a difference….in fact you are doing it already. Just not at the pace you’d like.