Lily
Three men, for awful crimes, are sentenced to 25 years in solitary confinement.
They are supplied with only food and drink. Before they go in, they get to choose one thing, in any amount, to take in with them for the 25 year duration.
The first prisoner chooses an endless supply of the finest wine. “Might as well pass the time drunk.” He said.
The second prisoner asked to be locked with his wife. “Might as well have her lovely company.” said he, and the loving wife agreed.
The third prisoner asked for an endless supply of cigarettes. “It’s the only thing that will calm me down all these years.”
They are locked inside, each with his wish. 25 years pass…
It is a day of celebration, and all gather to see what was the fate of the three imprisoned men.
They open the first prisoner’s door, and immediately hundreds of wine bottles come crashing out. He himself in a corner, wasted and hardly alive.
Then they open the second prisoner’s door, and a whole family steps out – babies, children and some teenagers, blinking in the new light of the world outside their cell.
Then they open the third prisoner’s door, and nothing comes out but unopened packs of cigarettes. The prisoner crawls slowly through the door, holding a single, crushed cigarette in his shaking hand.
“Does anyone,” he asks with a broken voice, “have a light?”
A biker was riding along a California beach when suddenly the sky
clouded above his head and, in a booming voice, the Lord said:
“Because you have tried to be faithful to me in all ways, I will grant you one wish.”
The biker pulled over and said, “Build a bridge to Hawaii so I can ride over anytime I want.”
The Lord said, “Your request is materialistic. Think of the enormous challenges for that kind of undertaking. The supports required to reach the bottom of the Pacific! The concrete and steel it would take! It will nearly exhaust several natural resources. I can do it, but it is hard for me to justify your desire for worldly things. Take a little more time and think of something that would honor and glorify me.”
The biker thought about it for a long time. Finally he said, “Lord, I wish that I could understand my wife. I want to know how she feels inside, what she’s thinking when she gives me the silent treatment, why she cries, what she means when she says nothing’s wrong, and how I can make a woman truly happy.”
The Lord replied, “You want two lanes or four on that bridge?”