This story happened a long time ago. So, in one small town there were schools, a hospital, stores... In general, everything that usually happens in similar towns. There was also a church, which the townspeople looked into from time to time. Of course, most of them knew how to pray and sometimes did it, but almost nobody saw the result of these prayers. And yet, they often did.
One night, the townspeople saw some strange lightning flickering over the roofs of the houses. At first the townspeople were frightened, because many of them were very afraid of thunderstorms, but then they realized that it was something else, because no one heard thunder. So, they calmed down, and many began to admire the lightning, because they were very beautiful. And someone even thought that they were angels or some other creatures from another world and decided to pray to them and ask for help. Soon the lightning disappeared and people went to sleep. But no one could even imagine where it would lead.
There was a woman who had a very serious and severe illness. She had been ill for a long time, and everyone said that she would not live long. But when she went to the hospital a week after meeting with lightning, it turned out that the disease...disappeared! The woman was not in remission, she was completely healthy! She and her family couldn't understand a thing, and never tired of thanking the magic lightning bolts. And this was not the only case.
First of all, in the neighboring yard with this woman lived people whose adult son was injured a few months ago, unable to walk, and everyone thought he never would be able to. Yet, a little over a month after his encounter with lightning, he was already walking down the street with a cane! This is the guy everyone said he wouldn't walk!
A few more of his peers had been helped by lightning to solve their job problems, one had been helped to start his own business, and two more had found jobs in another city. Still, there was a family in town where everyone thought the biggest miracle had happened.
There was a little girl whose name was Sophia. When she was a little over two years old, she disappeared. Her mom took her out for a walk in the yard, turned her back for a few seconds, and when she turned around, Sofia was gone. Not in her yard, not in the neighboring yard, nowhere. The worst part was that there was a forest and a river right next to this town. In addition, no one could understand where such a small girl could have gone, and even so that no one saw it. Therefore, there was another version: Sophia could have been stolen. However, this version was also not confirmed. Now Sofia was already five years old, but no one still did not know where she was.
Suddenly, a few months after the lightning encounter, a man came running to Sofia's parents, saying that mushroom pickers had found a strange girl in the forest. All she could say about herself was that she was five years old and her name was Sophia. Neither how she got into this forest (which they went around and around and not once), nor what she was doing all this time, nor who threw her to the mushroomers, Sophia did not tell.
All the townspeople were happy for each other and for themselves, but they could not understand one thing: why did wishes come true so seldom before, but now they all came true? Only the husband of the woman who recovered was able to guess. He said:
- And we've gotten almost everything we asked for before, we just rarely noticed, and almost never thanked.
Everyone else was ashamed because he was right. That's how people learned to give thanks for wishes granted.
The end