The Windows of Gold

There was once a boy who lived in the snow-covered mountains. Every day, at sunrise, he would look down into the valley below and see beautiful windows of gold far away. He yearned to go down into the valley to see these beautiful windows more clearly, but he knew it would be a long and difficult trek.

Each day he planned the journey, and each night he dreamed of it. Then, one golden morning, when dawn broke through and the valley was sparkling with dew, he started to climb down the mountainside. The journey was hard and long. He travelled all day until, at last, with bleeding feet and torn clothes, worn and weary, he entered the peaceful valley town. The sun was just setting, and the boy was hungry, tired, lonely and cold. He frantically looked around for the windows of gold, but they were nowhere to be seen.

The boy was devastated. He had come so far on this long and dangerous journey to find the windows of gold, but where were they? In desperation, he rushed up to a passing villager, crying, “Please tell me, where are the beautiful windows of gold?”

The villager smiled and pointed up to the top of the mountain, “There!” he explained, “the sun is setting and burnishing the windows on the top of the mountain.”

The boy looked in amazement. There was his own cabin at the very peak with gleaming windows of gold. He had come all this way to experience what he already had at home.

So it is with the Kingdom of God. We search for it everywhere outside, until we finally realize that it is not in some far distant place but is within our very selves.
_{Adapted from The Windows of Gold}