The Abandoning God

The God came to our tribe when Man was still new on this world, as indeed it came to all the tribes of Man. And since the tribes of Man were young and not yet wise (there are some who would argue this is still the case), the God came to each tribe in the form they would be most receptive to.

The God never claimed to have created us. It was a traveler journeying between the stars, when it encountered Man for the first time. And when it saw Man, its heart was filled with joy and love and hope, for it saw in Man great potential, and because of its great love it bore for all beings, it chose to nurture Man, to help us grow in body, in mind, and in spirit.

The God was kind to the tribes of Man, and so when storms destroyed the crops of one tribe, the God made food appear from the sky to see them through the hard times until they could produce a new crop. The tribe was very grateful, and they praised the God. They kept praising the God throughout the harvest season, then the through the winter, then through the time of planting. They praised the God so much that they neglected to plant their crops that year, trusting in the God to look after them, and when their supplies ran low, they asked the God to provide them with more food.

The God, not wishing to see one of the tribes it loved suffer, once more gave them food for another year, and told them that they must once more plant their crops and provide for themselves. The tribe was grateful, and praised the God with even more zeal than ever. The whole tribe dedicated itself to building temples, monuments and statues in honour of the God, and in that year, not one grain of wheat was grown, not one sheep was herded, not one deer was hunted, nor one berry gathered.

And so the tribe once more ran out of food, and trusting in the God to continue looking after them. But by this time, the God had come to realise that by continuing to provide them with food it was causing them to neglect to look after themselves, and that they would not change their ways while it took care of all their needs. So, even though it broke the God's heart, the God did not give them any food. The people of the tribe cried out in despair, calling on the God to help them once more as it had done before. The God felt the pain of those who no longer had food for themselves or their children, but forced itself not to help them out.

The people of the tribe continued to call upon the God to help them, but their prayers were unanswered. Some believed that they had somehow upset the God, and called for greater praise of the God. Others in the tribe decided that the God had abandoned them, and set about scavenging whatever food they could from the nearby forests and plains, and traded some of the tribe's treasures for food from their neighbours. As time passed, more and more of the tribe who were able joined them, and when the time was right, they planted crops and tended to them. The God saw this and was glad that the tribe was once more self sufficient.

Things went well for the tribes of Man and the God for many years after this, until the tribe of Tralgan crossed the Sea of Baran and encountered the tribe of Sorthop. These two tribes were quite unusual in that both lived far from any other tribes, and neither tribe had met another tribe before this. When the two tribes met, they were initially wary, but contact between the two increased and they began to learn about each other. Things went sour however, when the two tribes learnt about each others beliefs. For although both tribes had been visited by the God, and had been blessed by its love, each tribe perceived it in a different way and could not see that the God that loved them was the same God that also loved the other tribe.

The conflict between the two tribes started out small, but each attack was returned with great viciousness and brutality, the kind that can only be carried out by those confident in the fact that a real and powerful God was on their side. After several months of escalation, the two tribes met at what should have been a great battle, but as the two tribes were about to engage in mortal combat, the God appeared between them as a gigantic being and spoke to the two tribes.

"This must stop," the God spoke, "Both the tribe of Tralgan and the tribe of Sorthop are precious to me. I have watched you grow with pride, and cared for you, but now you are about to make a great mistake. Each of you thought that I loved you only, and only you loved me, and you sought to spread my love by sword and spear and shield, which are never the instruments of love. Go back to your homes and know that I love all the tribes of Man, and am loved by all the tribes."

The two tribes went back to their homes, and there they found raised up a stone monolith, just as tribes all over the world found stone monoliths, all of them engraved with the last words the God gave to us.

"Know that while I love all of you, I can not remain with you while you are young. My presence among you disrupts your growth. I have become a source of division instead of union. I have sought to protect you from harm, but in doing so have harmed you more. No longer shall I walk with the tribes of man as I have in years before. I shall journey between the stars once more, but I shall continue to watch you, until you are ready to be with me again. Remember what I have taught you, and one day, when you are ready, we will be together again."

And that is how the God abandoned us, to let us find our own path, to grow and improve ourselves so that one day we will be worthy of the love the God has for us still. One day, we too will journey among the stars and there we will be with the God once more.