There once was a rock in the middle of a stream. Those who loved the stream and its water saw the rock blocking its flow. Those who loved the rock saw the water chipping off the rock.
Those who loved and supported the water, and those who loved and supported the rock saw each other as opposed to their causes.
Each one insisted on the truth in what they say. Rightly. The rock was indeed impeding the water, and the water was in fact eroding the rock.
The water supporters insisted that the rock lovers are wrong, as did the rock lovers similarly insisting that the water supporters are wrong.
They furiously fought, flooding social media with why the rock must be removed, or why the water must be re-directed by a diversion canal to not cause harm to the rock.
A farmer lived near the stream. Someone asked the farmer who between the water supporters and the rock lovers are correct?
The farmer replied, “I don’t know. What I know is that with the rock in the middle of the stream, I sleep well at night listening to the melodious music of the water flowing around the rock.” And he adds, “That’s true.”
(Another truth created by two contending truths, but which in fact collaborated to create another truth.)
The farmer’s wife pipes in: “Yes, it’s true that with the rock in the middle of the stream, we’re lulled to sleep well at night, but when rains come, the water rises faster because of that rock blocking the water’s flow. We get flooded! We’ve been flooded many times, and we’ve lost things, and almost lost our lives.”
Seeing these confusing contentions and intensifying “truth wars”, God decided to dislodge the rock, and dry up the stream. Everybody lost what they loved, including the crops that the farmer and his wife were raising because they had no more water to grow them.
My take: It may not be about who’s truth is “truer” than others, but how truths — even if seemingly opposed — play out to, together, weave a fabric of a greater and wider truth.
And perhaps, just perhaps, the ultimate truth is not about whose truth is “truly true”, but about who is the truth.
And here, attention shifts to God.
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