[00:07.98]One calm, bright, sunshiny day, an angel slipped out of heaven
[00:13.89]and came down to this world and roamed field and forest, city and hamlet.
[00:19.36]Just as the sun was setting, he spread his wings and said,
[00:24.18]“Now my visit is over and I must go back to the world of light.
[00:29.32]But before I go, I would like to take along some mementos of my visit here.”
[00:35.23]He noticed a beautiful flower garden and said,
[00:39.66]“How lovely and fragrant these flowers are.”
[00:42.99]He plucked the rarest and most beautiful roses and made a bouquet and said,
[00:49.51]“I see nothing more beautiful and fragrant than these;
[00:53.96]I will take them back to heaven with me.”
[00:56.62]Looking on a little further, he saw a bright-eyed baby,
[01:01.29]smiling into its mother’s face.
[01:03.62]And he said,“Oh, that baby’s smile is even prettier than this bouquet of roses;
[01:10.85]I will take that, too!”
[01:12.70]Then he looked just beyond the cradle and there was a mother’s love pouring out
[01:19.49]like the gush of a river toward the cradle and the baby.
[01:23.21]And he said to himself,“Oh,
[01:26.54]that mother’s love is the prettiest thing I have seen on earth;
[01:31.79]I will carry that, too.”
[01:34.04]With the three treasures he winged his way back to heaven.
[01:38.74]When he got outside the pearly gates, he decided to examine his mementos.
[01:44.87]He looked at the flowers and they had wilted.
[01:48.70]He looked at the baby’s smile and it had faded.
[01:53.08]He looked at the mother’s love and it was still there in all its warmth
[01:58.32]and in all its pristine beauty.
[02:00.85]He threw aside the wilted flowers and the faded smile,
[02:05.42]and winged his way through the gates.
[02:07.84]He led all the hosts of heaven together and said,
[02:12.11]“Here is the only thing I found on earth
[02:15.96]that would keep its beauty all the way to heaven ...
[02:18.68]It is a Mother’s Love.”
