A familiar, yet thought-provoking illustration. John and his elder sister were good friends and loved one another as they were raised by God-fearing parents. Their parents got them all that was necessary, indeed, their home was a little heaven on earth. They lived in the times when there were no gadgets, so they played in their vast backyard once they return home from school. Their father wanted to make the kids to enjoy their play-time, and hence he bought ten lovely ducklings and entrusted them under John’s care. The siblings were joyous and had lots of fun with the ducklings. They relished the way they walked, bathed, fed and swam. John had the habit of shooting stones with his catapult, as the ducklings grazed. On one such evening, when John’s sister was watering the plants and the ducklings were grazing, by mistake John shot one of the stones on a duckling. Panicked and nervous, both the siblings attended the injured duckling. Before they could realise what had to be done, the duckling passed away. Grieved and troubled, they buried it at a corner at their backyard. Gathering all courage, John pleaded his sister not to reveal that incident to their parents. She agreed, yet John was troubled with the thought, “What will happen if my dad comes to know about it?” This thought kept haunting him as he tucked onto his bed.

The next day was the weekend and John had not yet moved out of his bed, when he heard her sister yelling, “John, get me a pail of water from the well, for am washing the utensils and the water is gone”. John was wondering as to why all of a sudden, his sister is behaving this way. So, he screamed, “Why would I? It’s your job. Help yourself!” and pulled the blanket over his face to continue with his long sleep. Immediately she yelled, “John, duckling!” The word, “duckling” reminded John of all the nightmare that happened the previous evening and the deal he made with his sister. The very next moment he took a pail of water to his sister and obeyed to all that she forced her to do. Whenever he refused, she whispered, “John, duckling!” This went on for a week. John couldn’t go any further.

One evening he thought to himself, “Why don’t I go up to my dad and confess of al that I had done? Am sure he loves me, and so he’ll forgive me. But even if he punishes me, let me take it up, for it was my fault. Facing dad’s punishment should be far better than being a slave to my sister!” So he waited for his dad to come. His dad arrived and he waited until his sister went to sleep. Slowly, with a bit of nervousness of not knowing what his dad’s response could be, John walked up to him who was engrossed with the newspaper, sitting on the couch, and said, “Dad…..I have something to tell you…I know you will be provoked, yet I decided it is high time I disclose it to you.” Dad said, “Son, haven’t you slept yet? What is that you wanna tell me at this hour? By the way, how are the ducklings? Are they happy with you?” The word “duckling” intensified his fear. He finally broke out and said, “Dad, one of the ducklings are dead, for I shot it with my catapult by mistake. Will you please forgive me? I’ve lost my peace since then. I’m sorry for hiding it from you for a week now” and sobbed bitterly, holding his dad’s hands. His dad was quite surprised on seeing his true confession. He took him by his side, hugged him, wiped his tears and said, “Son, no worries…don’t feel this bad…I’ll get you ten more ducklings…! I wouldn’t have forgiven you if I found this out by myself; because you came up and accepted your wrongdoing, I forgive you and will reward you!”

John’s joy found no bounds. He was so happy that he kissed his dad much and went back to bed. The haunt of, “What if I was found?” departed from him that very moment. More that everything, the best part was, he was no longer a slave to his sister. The next morning, his sister called out to John to carry out a chore. He replied boldly, “No, I won’t. Why should I? Do it yourself!” When she yelled as usual, “John, duckling!” he said, “Go ahead and do what you could do!” She was surprised. Later she came to know of his confession to their dad and was happy about her brother.

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1: 9