A Greater Gift

Harold Klemp

One afternoon I picked my daughter up from kindergarten. As I waited for her, I noticed a little child of about three with a picture book. My daughter walked up to the child and calmly removed the book from her hands. To my amazement, the child didn’t cry.

I knew my daughter was very good with younger children. So I said to her, “I saw how you took that book away from the little kid today. She didn’t cry. How did you do it?”

“Here, I’ll show you,” she said, handing me a book. “This is a pretty book, isn’t it?”

I said, “Yes, this is a very pretty book.” I stood there, twice as tall as she was, and she said, “OK, hang on real tight. Try not to give me the book.”

She tugged, I hung on, and I kept the book. “Yeah, I see,” I said, wondering what her point was. “I won’t let go.”

She went to the bookcase and pulled out another book. She showed me this new book, talking about how pretty the cover was and how much bigger it was compared to the one I was holding.

Flipping it open to show me the pretty pictures, she enthused, “Isn’t this a pretty book! It has so many pictures!” Quick as a wink, she handed me the new one, taking the book I was holding.

“Wasn’t that easy?” she asked me.

This principle works in life, too. The Master takes some of our karma away, and he says, “I will give you something better.” There may, however, be a few weeks or months where our hands appear to be empty, because it can take time for the greater gift to replace the old karma which was taken away.