There is a story about an angel who visited an elderly couple. The angel said, "Because of your innocence and kindness, God has decided to grant you three wishes. However, there is one condition: whatever you wish for, your neighbor will receive double."
The couple was delighted and made their first wish: "We wish for a mountain of grain so we no longer have to farm!" The next morning, a mountain of plump, ripe grain appeared before their door. The elderly man was overjoyed and headed to town to buy timber to expand their barn. On the way, he ran into his neighbor, who was dancing with joy. "I have two mountains of grain in front of my house!" the neighbor exclaimed. "We won't have to work for years!" Suddenly, envy surged in the old man's heart, and he wished the neighbor would disappear.
A week later, the angel returned. The couple's second wish was: "We wish for a lovely baby." Ten months later, they were blessed with a child. However, before they could share the news, the neighbor arrived with red eggs, announcing, "My wife has given birth to twins!" The couple felt a pang of bitterness, unable to even swallow their food.
When the angel arrived for the third wish, the old man furiously demanded, "I want God to cut off one of my arms! I want my neighbor to lose both hands and never be able to work again!" The old man waited in agony, but nothing happened. Instead, he saw the angel weeping. "God will not grant this, for He loves everyone. When you made that request, God's heart broke. Why must you hurt others and yourself, and wound the heart of God?"
In our daily lives, do we often feel envy toward our "neighbors"? When we envy or curse them, God weeps for us. The Bible says, "Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn." It is easy to empathize with those in pain, but can you truly rejoice with those who achieve success? Jesus taught us in the parable of the Good Samaritan to love our neighbors, yet human nature often drives us to envy them. As the angel said: envy is giving pain to yourself and sadness to God. Envy is a knife; you think you are stabbing someone else, but you are actually stabbing your own heart.
