Long ago, there was a shy boy with low self-esteem. His character, was pretty much affected by the scars on his back. These dark red scars stretch from his neck till the waist. It looked awful. This is why the boy hates himself quite a lot and was afraid to even change his clothes.

During sports class, everyone was so delighted to get rid of their uncomfortable uniform and put their sports attire on. However, that boy hid himself at a corner, holding his back as close to the wall as he could. With great speed, he changed to his sports attire. He did so much all because of his scars. But still, the rest of the classmate saw his scars.

 “How awful!” “He’s a monster!” “No I don’t want to play with him!” “You’re so ugly…”

Innocent children had hurt the boy without even knowing it. The boy burst into tears and ran out of the classroom. Since then, he never wanted to join the sports class anymore.

After that incident, the little boy’s mother held his hand and went to see the class teacher. The class teacher was a kind woman at the age of 40. The mother carefully explained the boy’s story to the teacher. “He’s got a severe illness while he was born. Originally I wanted to give up on him, but I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t hardly let go of such a beautiful life.” The mother continued with tears in her eyes “so my husband and I decided to save our baby. Luckily, we’ve met a great doctor who was willing to help us. After a few surgeries, he successfully lived. Nevertheless, there will forever be scars on his back…”

The mother then asked the boy to take off his shirt. He hesitated for a moment, but agreed to that at the end. The mother commented that these scars are the proof of his victory over the war of life. The teacher was shocked at first, but she asked the boy “Does it still hurts?” The boy shook his head and said “no…” The mother continued “This boy is very well-behaved. God may have given him drastic challenge and leaving two scars behind, but teacher, please take good care of him, alright?” The teacher nodded his head, touched the boy’s head and said “I know, I’ll have my way…”

At this very moment, there were lots of thoughts longing in the teacher’s mind. If I asked the children not to laugh at the boy, this might not solve the problem at its root. There must be a better way… Suddenly, the teacher’s got an idea. She told the boy “on tomorrow’s sports class, you must change with all the other classmates.” The boy opened his eyes wide and said “but… they’ll laugh at me, and… and say that I’m a monster…” The teacher replied “No worries. I’ll have a way to not let the children laugh at you.” “Really?” “Yes, please believe me” They promised each other. “I trust you, teacher.”

On the next day, the boy hid himself at the corner again. Just as expected, the rest of the classmates began to murmur about the boy. Just when the boy’s eyes began to grow tears…

The teacher appeared at the door. A few of the children quickly hid themselves behind the teacher out of fear. “Teacher, look! That’s scary! It looks like two large worms…” Teacher said nothing, then she walked towards the boy. “Oh, that’s not worms…” The teacher smiled and explained “Long ago, I’ve heard a story and I’d like to share it with you today.” The children began to gather themselves around the teacher. Pointing at the scars, the teacher began the story “This is a legend! Every child evolves from angels above the sky. While most of the children could shed their beautiful wings in just a while, a few of the children are pretty slower.”

 “At this time, the scars will be left on the children’s back.” The children began to ask “Wow… Then these would have been the wings, aren’t they?” The teacher continued “Yes. Do you want to check each other and see whether you have marks of the wings?” The children quickly check each other’s back to see whether there are any marks left. But still, no one had a mark so obvious like the boy. “Teacher, I have a small wound here, is this the mark of my wings?” said one of the children. “No teacher, my back is red over here, I’m the angel…” All of the students were yelling loud out of a sudden. Not a single kid was laughing at the boy anymore. As for the boys, he smiled, finally.

Among all the children, a girl raised her hand and asked “Teacher, could we, have a touch on the angel’s wings?” The teacher replied with a smile “Then we must ask for permission from the angel.” The boy finally gathered his courage and said “it… it’s alright…” After the girl touched the boy’s scars, she yelled “Oh, it’s so soft! I’ve finally touched an angel’s wings!” As the classmates heard the girl’s yell, everyone began to ask for permission to do the same. It’s funny that a sports class had become an opportunity to touch an angel’s wings.

The boy showed the class his back, hearing all the admiration and praising, for the first time, he felt something different. Deep in his heart, he wasn’t unhappy anymore. Since then, he couldn’t stop smiling. The teacher at the side showed the boy a sign of victory. As the boy ages, he understood the teacher’s intention and thanked her with the fullest of his heart. It’s that ‘pair of wings’ that brought back his faith. He even joined a swimming competition and got himself at the place of the 1^st runner up. He courageously picked this field as he believes that the scars on his back, is always blessed by his teacher, as the ‘wings of an angel’.

Well actually, I’m that kid. It’s been over 10 years. I could still remember that sentence, ‘wings of an angel’ got me walked out of darkness.


Postscript:

That pair of ‘wings’ deeply touched my heart. What if the mother never cared that much of her child? What if the boy never wanted to trust his teacher? What if the teacher let him down? The teacher’s effort has turn fear into admiration. This clearly shows that attitude decides everything and the art of words is undoubtedly powerful.

There was once Ikeda Sensei visited a kaikan of one country that was right next to a special school dedicated to blind people. Ikeda Sensei decided to pay a visit to the school. The sudden change was never included in the plan, so the leaders were busy arranging for the visit.

When Ikeda Sensei reached there on the next day, there were lots of blinded children waiting for him at the entrance. The children couldn’t see Ikeda Sensei, but when they heard his encouragement, they burst into tears! Ikeda Sensei was speaking in Japanese. We had to depend on the translator to understand the meaning. Surprisingly, before the translator could even finish the sentence, the children had already burst into tears!

How could he do that? It’s just the same with ‘wings of an angel’, having such great power to encourage the children, changing their lives. This is all because of our mentor’s sincerity. Sensei had always stood on the side of children to think for them, care about them. This is why he could touch their hearts so deeply. The teacher never wasted her great effort for the sake of the child to walk out of the darkness. When we sincerely understand people and taking actions, even simple words could touch the people around us.

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