1 I. Lily's 'Heart' Got Broken

There was a little girl named Lily. It was a clear, peaceful day and she was humming along while walking the Path of Life, headed towards the Kingdom. She was wearing a crystal necklace, the pendant about a size of a fist, and it was called a 'heart'. Every sojourner was given one as they walk their own path. Sometimes the paths would cross with each other — sometimes parallel, crossing over, or overlapping — and they get to meet other sojourners and walk with them for a certain amount of time, as their paths would allow. But there were some sojourners who would walk away from their paths (they're called 'wild sojourners'), and go astray, sometimes never getting the chance to reach home and falling off to their demise in the darkness. Some wild sojourners would even stumble across another's path and could potentially harm them to also walk away and go wandering to their own unguided path. Fortunately for some wild sojourners, stumbling across another's path could also guide them back to their own path.

As Lily was walking, a small pebble suddenly hit her head from above. She flinched in pain and looked up to see where it came from. She was very shocked to see that more bigger boulders and rocks where coming down from the top of the cliff beside the road she was currently walking at. With not much time she ran to the other side of the road, shouting and covering her head. The rocks poured down. Some smaller rocks were bumping off the bigger ones and landed farther around her. Because she was closing her eyes as she ran — being terrified and all — she stumbled upon a stone and landed flat on the ground.

The rumbling of the rocks have ceased.

She slowly got up and felt pain in her chest. Wide-eyed, she saw fragments of her 'heart' on the ground. All the color drained from her face and her eyes started brimming with tears. She scooped the fragments and collected all the pieces, not missing a single shard. Apparently when she stumbled, there was a small rock beneath directly below her and her 'heart' crashed on it as she fell. Some of her tears fell on the broken pieces of her heart. She was unaware that her chest was also bruised and bleeding because she was grieving more for the shattered crystal. She knew that no matter how much she cried, it will never be restored.

She also knew it was her fault. Many times she has been careless walking along her path, and her 'heart' has already gathered a considerable amount of cracks and scratches. She has been warned before not to go on her own way and not to wander very far from her path. But many times she would get distracted with a flower or a tree and other eye-catching things on the far side of the road and would 'temporarily' wander far off from the path. She would climb the tree for fruits and fall off, or try to pick flowers and later be attacked by bees. She would always get in trouble whenever she leaves her path. One time, she even got lost because she has gone so far she couldn't find her way back. She cried a lot before she was able to return. Wandering off also delayed her from advancing to the Kingdom. And she would also wander off whenever she would get impatient and tries to fulfill her needs and desires with the things around her, even though she knew that somewhere on the road ahead there is a 'rest house' that will replenish all her needs, as it did before. She's very stubborn and disobedient. For all the trouble she's caused, her heart would always take damages and suffer with her.

She just sat there crying, not knowing what to do, as her 'heart' this time had crashed and broke. It was the one thing keeping her company as it was glowing with light to help her find her way. The pieces are still warm and faintly glowing in her hands, which gave her a glint of hope that it could be made whole again. But how?

Suddenly, a hand tapped her shoulder. A man in white clothing knelt beside her and asked why she was crying. She reiterated the story of how she was walking and ended up getting her heart broken. "It happened so fast," she commented at the end of the story. She was still sobbing when the man in white asked her if she believed that it could still be fixed. Surprised, she immediately stopped sobbing and turned to the man in white. The man was big and glowing, wearing pure white. She can't look straight to his face because it was very bright like the sun. She can only gaze up to his chest.

"How?" she asked.

"If you can believe, all things are possible to those who believe," he replied.

She looked back at the broken shards of her heart sitting on her hands. Looking at it grieved her so much that her tears started falling again. She wanted it to be fixed, but she also felt a tinged of doubt because she has no idea how. Yet she decided to trust the words of the man in white. She tried picturing in her mind that she was holding an already fixed crystal in her hands. She smiled at the thought. "Yes, I believe my heart could be restored."