As a pink sliver of sun was peaking over the horizon, the little girl left her house and headed towards the river. She went to wait for Him. She knew that He took His morning walks by the river, and she was longing to see Him. Today was an important day. She was going to ask Him to fill her heart. She wanted her heart to look JUST like His one day, and she couldn’t wait to start.
She carried her beating heart in her hands. She stared sweetly at it, and spoke to it: “Today is the day, dear heart! He’s going to fill you up!”
The heart was all sorts of bright and wonderful colors. It looked like a child’s canvas. Some pieces of it were splashed with pink, blue, and green paints, and other pieces were colored with wild squiggly lines, with no clear beginnings or ends…other dearer pieces were splattered and coated with sparkles, glitz, glam and absolute wildness. She was proud of her little heart, but she knew it couldn’t stay the same. It must look like His one day.
She arrived by the river and plopped down on the soft earth by the rush of water, holding her heart close to her chest. The sun was fully present now, and she could see Him approaching. He was singing softly and deeply, as He often did during his morning rambles. His voice was the only sound in the world that made her heart really skip a beat.
The girl ran down the pebbly bank to meet Him. He held out His arms to her, and she wildly leapt into them . She could hardly contain her excitement.
“I’m so glad you finally came! You see, I want you to fill my heart today! I want my heart to look just like yours! Oh, won’t you fill it please!?” She was giddy and giggly and could hardly keep herself from shaking.
“Fill you?” He smiled, cocking his head with genuine curiosity. “Let’s take a look at that heart of yours.” He reached down and took her heart carefully.
“Fill it up to the brim!” she sang.
“You want me to fill it, but it seems there is no room for me.” He said this with an air of playfulness. He handed it back, but she wasn’t having it. She was determined and desperate.
“I don’t care, won’t you please fill it?” She implored. “Your heart is the most beautiful in all the world, and I won’t be satisfied until mine looks just like yours.”
He smiled and nodded with a great grin spreading across His face.
“It’s my greatest joy, dear one, to fill you to the brim. I want your heart to look like mine too.” He bent down and locked eyes with her. “But you must remember that as I give, I also take away.”
“Of course! I know!” She half-listened to Him as she twirled around with glee. He was going to make her heart like His! At last!
He took her heart again and examined it for a moment. Suddenly, He did something the girl didn’t expect. He took out a piece.
She screamed and flew forward. “Stop! What do you think you’re doing?!”
“I’m taking out this piece of your heart.” He held it sacredly in His hands.
“B-but… you aren’t supposed to take out the pieces!” She grabbed her heart back to look at the damage. The piece He took out was the piece she loved most dearly. It was bright yellow, sparkly, and made her so happy to look at. No other part of her heart was like it, and she was horrified that anyone would even think about taking it.
“How else can I fill your heart if I can’t take out the pieces?” He tilted His head and furrowed His brows. “Don’t you trust me?”
She stared at her heart. There was a hollow space in it now. It didn’t glimmer and glow like it used to. There were still beautiful pieces, of course, but nothing like the piece that He took. Nothing could compare. She began to feel angry.
“Go away,” she fell to the ground, clinging to her little heart tightly. “You… you are cruel.” Tears streaked straight down her face.
Her words seemed to wound him, but not anger Him. “I know this hurts, little one, but you must trust me. I’ll be back. Please wait here for me.” Moments later, she looked up and he was gone.
“That… that monster.” She thought, bitterly. “He took the piece I loved most. Why would he leave me with this hollow space?”
Minutes felt like days. She stared at her pathetic heart, beating with a sad sort of dull rhythm. That hollow space was unbearable.
She suddenly had an idea.
“I can’t stand this hollow space any longer. I’ll find something to fill it!” She stood up, heart in hand, and marched towards the town with a vengeance.
Soon after she arrived, she found a man sitting on the bench. He was holding some pieces of shiny metal. The shine drew her in, and she held out her little heart to him.
“Sir,” she asked desperately. “Can I have those small, pretty pieces to fill my heart? There’s a hollow space, you see.”
The man smiled wryly, and tossed over the pieces. She picked them up and tucked them inside the heart. But it seemed that there weren’t enough pieces to fill it up completely. The hollow space was too big.
“I’ll find more things to fill it! Not to worry, little heart! You won’t stay empty for long!”
She continued her search around the town. Different people offered her different pieces. Shards of glass and metal began to fill up the hollow space. However, the more she filled it, the more hideous it became. In fact, the pieces were causing her to lose sensation in her heart altogether. She began to move like a lifeless corpse.
The sun began to set, and she found herself back by the river. She looked at her heart again. Jagged metal and broken pieces of glass were spilling out. She stared blankly and coldly at the thing she once looked at with pride.
“It’s all His fault. If he hadn’t taken that precious piece, I wouldn’t have this ugly, ugly heart.” She gritted her teeth and dropped the heart in the dirt.
Soft footprints approached her. She knew it was Him, but she didn’t dare look up. She just stared blankly at his feet.
“Oh dear one, where did you go? I came back to find you and you were gone.” He sounded so sad and concerned, but her heart was cold.
“I went to fill that hollow place you left in my heart.” Bitterness gripped her throat. She continued to stare at his feet, and then saw drops of water hitting the dirt. She glanced up and saw His face. He was crying.
“Oh my little friend, didn’t I promise to fill it? Why didn’t you trust me?”
She felt a twinge in her heart. His grief seemed to hurt her more than she thought it could. He knelt down and picked the heart off the ground and brushed it off with his rugged hands. He held it inches away from her eyes.
“Don’t you remember what I told you in the beginning?”
She sat in silence. She remembered His words clear as day, but could only remember the moment He took away her most beloved piece. Tears welled up in her eyes.
“You said… as you give, you take away.” She choked on her words and suddenly burst out, “But why would you take away what I loved most? Why would you leave me with that ugly hollow in my heart?” Suddenly, her heart broke. In two. Right there. The metal and shards of glass fell out.
Her sobs were uncontrollable and she felt His arm reach around her. For a few minutes, He sat there, His arm tight around her shoulder, tears dripping down from the tip of of His nose.
His arm left her side and she opened her blurry eyes. He grabbed a clean, white cloth from His pocket and began cleaning off the broken heart. She watched in wonder as he took out a needle and thread and started mending it back together. Hours passed, and soon, the miraculous mending was complete. The heart looked almost brand new. But the hollow space was still there.
He took the heart and placed it in front of her.
“Little girl, do you want me to fill it?” He said this with such kindness and intensity, that her stomach tightened and her eyes widened.
She looked for a minute. She considered the pain of what she had lost. Could anything be better? She remembered the numb of the shattered pieces that didn’t belong inside her… would His filling leave her wanting more?
While these questions created a long strain of silence, His eyes melted into hers, and then suddenly, all she could remember was how He mended her heart with such care. He wasn’t angry that she ran away. He wasn’t bitter that she tried to fill her heart with other things. She abandoned him, and yet He still remained true and promised to fill her. This compelled her to take the newly mended heart, with the hollow space, and give it back to Him.
“Please sir, would you fill it?”
A wide grin stretched across face and wrinkles deepen into His eyes. He laughed big and took the heart.
“Get ready, sister,” His eyes sparkled, “This is gonna be good.” He began to pour a sparkly, waxy, caramely, golden something in her heart, and the warmth was so sweet that she nearly melted into a puddle on the ground. She smiled with complete satisfaction. She looked at the hollow space — full, glimmering, and more beautiful than she could have even imagined it to be. She even noticed pieces of what He had taken — the sparkly yellow — it was there too.
“Your heart isn’t finished, you know,” he smiled. “When the time comes, I will give you more and take away more. What do you think about that?”
She felt a brief tug of sadness at what she would lose, but something new was inside her now: a peace that it was somehow going to be worth it.
“Fill it up to the brim,” she smiled and sighed a sing-songy, satisfied sigh.