One day, Jesus, the son of Mary, while still a child, sculpted small birds out of clay. Seeing this, other children who did not know how to sculpt birds ran to the adults and complained about him.
Adults said:
“It is not permissible to do such things on a holy day,” for it was Saturday.
And they went to the pool where Jesus was playing, and coming up to him, they asked where the birds he had fashioned were.
In response, Jesus pointed to the clay birds, and at that very moment the birds took off into the air and flew away.
“It is impossible to make flying birds, which means he did not break the Sabbath,” said one of the adults.
“I would like to master this art,” said another.
“This is not art,” objected the third, “an ordinary trick, a visual illusion and nothing more.”
So, the Sabbath was not broken, the magic art remained unknown to anyone, and as for deception, adults, like children, deceived themselves, because they did not know for what purpose the birds were fashioned.
The fact that it was forbidden to do anything on Saturday had a reason that was long forgotten. Adults did not know how to distinguish truth from lies. The origin of magical art and the purpose of the miracle created were completely unknown to them. Therefore, all this had no consequences for them, just as it did with pulling out the wooden board.
It is said that Jesus once helped Joseph the carpenter in his workshop.
One board turned out to be too short, and then Jesus somehow stretched it to the required size.
When this story was told to people, they said: “But this is a real miracle, so this boy will certainly become a saint.”
Others said, “We won’t believe it until we see it with our own eyes.”
“This cannot be,” said others, “because this can never happen. This story should be removed from the books."
All these people with their different opinions reacted exactly the same to this story, because the purpose and meaning of the statement “he stretched the board” was unknown to them.
Sufi authors often refer to Jesus as the master of the path. There is, in addition, an unimaginable number of oral traditions about him, popular in the Middle East, which are still waiting for the collector. In a slightly modified form, this story can be found in many dervish collections.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru