"If you have the time." I said.

He smiled through his beard and said: "My time is called eternity and is enough to do everything; what questions do you have in mind to ask me?"

"Come in," God said to me, "so, you would like to interview me?"

"None that is new to you. What's the one thing that surprises you most about mankind?"

His hands took mine and we were silent. After a long period, I said, "May I ask you another question?"

He answered: "That they get bored of being children, are in a rush to grow up, and then long to be children again. That they lose their health to make money and then lose their money to restore their health. That by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live neither for the present nor the future. That they live as if they will never die, and they die as if they never had never lived…"

"As a Father, what would you ask your children to do for the new year?"

"To learn that they cannot make anyone love them. What they can do is to let themselves be loved.

He replied with a smile.

To learn that it only takes a few seconds to open profound wounds in persons we love, and that it takes many years to heal them.

To learn to forgive by practicing forgiveness.

To learn that money can buy everything but happiness.

To learn that they should control their attitudes, otherwise their attitudes will control them.

To learn that true friends are scarce, he/she who has found one has found a true treasure.

To learn that it is not good to compare themselves to others. There will be others better or worse than they are.

To learn that a rich person is not one who has the most, but is one who needs the least.

To learn that while at times they may be entitled to be upset, that does not give them the right to upset those around them.

To learn that what is most valuable is not what they have in their lives, but who they have in their lives.

To learn that great dreams do not require great wings, but a landing gear to achieve.

To learn that it takes years to build trust, and a few seconds to destroy it.

To learn that those who are honest with themselves without considering the consequences go far in life.

To learn that even though they may think they have nothing to give, when a friend cries with them, they find the strength to appease the pain.

To learn that by trying to hold on to love ones, they very quickly push them away; and by letting go of those they love, they will be side by side forever.

To learn that they can never do something extraordinary for me to love them; I simply do.

To learn that two people can look at the same thing and see something totally different.

To learn that even though the word "love" has many different meanings, it loses value when it is overstated.

To learn that the shortest distance they could be from me is the 'the distance of a prayer'."