A Letter to God

Why This Matters

Think about a moment when everything went wrong at once. Maybe the result you needed didn’t come. Maybe money was short and there was no way out. In moments like that, many people do one thing: they hope. They believe that somehow, help will come.

This story is about exactly that kind of moment. A poor farmer named Lencho loses his whole crop in one terrible storm. His family will go hungry. He has no money and no one to ask. So he does something simple and surprising. He writes a letter — to God — and asks for help.

What happens next is gentle, funny and a little sad, all at the same time. And it quietly asks you a big question: what should we put our faith in? In God? In other people? The story does not lecture you. It just shows you something and lets you think. That is what makes it a story people remember for life, not just for an exam.

The Big Idea

A poor farmer’s faith in God is so complete that nothing can shake it. When help actually comes from kind human beings, he cannot even see it — because in his mind, only God could have sent it. The story shows the deep power of faith, the quiet goodness in ordinary people, and a sharp twist of irony: the very people who help Lencho are the ones he ends up calling thieves.

📖 Where to read the original: For copyright reasons, the full original text of the prose lesson is not reproduced here — read it in your NCERT First Flight textbook. This page gives you a complete summary and explanation to study alongside it. (The poem(s) in the public domain appear in full, with meaning, in their own section below.)

Before we go deeper, here is one term you will meet again and again in this chapter. It is worth getting clear right now.

The Story

The story was written by a Mexican writer, G.L. Fuentes. Let’s walk through it in order, simply.

High on a low hill stood the only house in the whole valley. A farmer named Lencho lived there with his family. His field of ripe corn needed just one thing — rain. All morning he watched the sky to the north-east, waiting.

Then the rain came, exactly as he had predicted. Lencho was so happy he went out just to feel the drops on his body. He even called the raindrops “new coins” — the big drops were ten-cent coins, the little ones were fives. To a farmer, rain is money, because rain means a good harvest.

But then everything changed. A strong wind began to blow. With the rain came hailstones — hard balls of ice — falling like silver coins. For a full hour the hail hammered the whole valley. When it stopped, the field was white, as if covered with salt. Not a single leaf was left on the trees. The corn was completely destroyed. Lencho said sadly that even a plague of locusts would have left more than this. This year, there would be no corn. The family faced hunger.

That night was a sad one. But in their hearts there was one single hope: help from God. Lencho was a hard worker — “an ox of a man” — but he also knew how to write. So the next Sunday he wrote a letter. To God. He asked God for a hundred pesos (the local money) so he could sow his field again and feed his family until the next crop. He wrote “To God” on the envelope, put a stamp on it, and dropped it into the mailbox at the post office.

A postman found the letter and laughed. He took it to his boss, the postmaster, a fat, friendly man. The postmaster laughed too — but then he grew serious. He was moved by the farmer’s faith. He said he wished he had such faith himself. So, to keep that faith alive, he decided to do something kind: he would answer the letter as if from God.

But to answer it, he needed money, not just goodwill. So the postmaster collected money from his employees, gave part of his own salary, and asked friends to help “for an act of charity”. He could not gather the full hundred pesos. He managed only a little more than half. He put this money in an envelope addressed to Lencho, and signed the letter with a single word: God.

The next Sunday Lencho came back, asking if there was a letter for him. There was. He showed no surprise at all when he saw the money — to him, God answering was completely natural. But when he counted the money, he became angry. The amount was short. And here is the heart of the story: Lencho was sure God could not make a mistake. So someone else must have taken the rest.

He went straight to the window, asked for paper and ink, and wrote another letter to God. He told God that only seventy pesos had reached him, and asked for the rest. But — he added — please do not send it through the mail this time, “because the post office employees are a bunch of crooks.” The very men who had given their own money to help him were the ones he called thieves.

Now let’s slow down and understand why each piece of this story works the way it does.

Let’s Break It Down

The characters: Lencho and the postmaster

The whole story turns on two people. They are very different, and that difference is the point. Figure 1.2 below puts them side by side so you can see what each one is like.

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Lencho is the kind of person who feels things simply and deeply. He is not educated much, but he can read and write. He works as hard as an animal. Most importantly, his faith in God is total. He does not pray and hope God might answer — he writes a letter the way you would write to a shop that always delivers. He is so trusting (we call this naive) that he never even wonders whether God is real or whether a letter can reach Him. To Lencho, that is simply settled.

The postmaster is the opposite kind of person. He is worldly and practical — he knows letters don’t reach God. But he has a warm heart. When he sees Lencho’s faith, he doesn’t mock it. He protects it. He spends real money and real effort, and then steps back without asking for a single word of thanks. He is the quiet hero of the story.

The setting

The setting is small but it matters. Lencho’s house is “the only one in the entire valley”, sitting alone on a hill. That loneliness is important. There are no neighbours to borrow from, no city help nearby. When the crop dies, Lencho really has no one to turn to in the ordinary world. That is exactly why turning to God feels, to him, like the natural — even the only — choice. The empty valley quietly pushes him toward heaven.

The central theme: faith

Faith is the engine of this whole story. And here we must do the thing that matters most — ask why, not just what.

NCERT tells you Lencho has great faith. But here is the question a thoughtful reader asks: Lencho got less money than he asked for. So why didn’t his faith crack even a little? Why didn’t he wonder, “Maybe God didn’t really answer”?

The answer is the key to his character. Figure 1.3 walks through the logic in his mind, step by step.

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Look at how it works. Lencho starts from one fixed rule he never questions: God cannot make a mistake, and God cannot refuse me. Now a fact appears that doesn’t fit: the money is short. A person without such faith might think, “Maybe God didn’t send it, or sent less.” But Lencho cannot think that — his rule forbids it. So his mind is forced to find another guilty party. The only people who touched the letter were the post office staff. Therefore, in his logic, they must be the thieves.

This is the beautiful, sad twist of his character. His anger at people does not show that his faith is weak. It shows that his faith is so strong it cannot bend. The faith stays perfect by blaming humans instead.

The theme of hope and human goodness

Two other themes run quietly through the story. First, hope: even on the saddest night, the family clings to one thought — “no one dies of hunger.” Hope keeps them going. Second, and more touching, is human goodness. The real help in this story does not fall from the sky. It comes from a group of ordinary post-office workers who quietly put their own money together for a stranger. The story gently suggests that maybe people — kind, everyday people — are where real help comes from.

These themes don’t sit in separate boxes; they all link to the story’s message. Figure 1.5 maps them together so you can see the connections.

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Irony: the twist that makes the story unforgettable

This is the most important literary idea in the chapter, so let’s define it carefully first.

Now apply it here. The whole ending is dripping with irony. Lencho asked God for help. He got help — but not from God. He got it from human beings. And the people who showed him real kindness, who gave their own hard-earned money, are exactly the people he ends up calling “a bunch of crooks.” The kind become the criminals, in his eyes. Figure 1.4 lays the two pictures side by side.

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But why does Fuentes end the story right here, on this twist, instead of giving us a happy ending where Lencho finds out the truth and says thank you? Because the irony is the whole point. By ending on it, the writer makes us stop and think. He is gently asking: Where does goodness really come from? And can blind faith make us unfair to the very people who care for us? If Lencho had found out and thanked everyone, the story would be sweet — and forgotten. By leaving it unfair and unfinished, the writer leaves the question burning in your mind. That is the mark of a great short story.

Literary devices used

Writers use small tricks of language to make a story vivid. The most important one here is the metaphor.

The story is full of clever metaphors. Lencho calls the raindrops “new coins” — transferring the idea of money onto rain, because to a farmer, rain is wealth. The clouds are called “huge mountains of clouds” — transferring the hugeness of mountains onto the clouds. The hailstorm is compared to a plague of locusts. And Lencho himself is called “an ox of a man” — transferring an ox’s strength and tireless hard work onto him. Spotting these in the text is a common exam task.

There is also conflict in the story, of two kinds. The first is human versus nature — Lencho against the storm that destroys his crop. The second is human versus human — Lencho against the post office staff he believes have cheated him. Naming these two conflicts is another favourite exam question.

The Poems

This chapter also carries two short, famous poems by the American poet Robert Frost. Both are tiny but pack a big punch.

Dust of Snow

Here is the poem itself. Read it stanza by stanza:

The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree

In this first stanza, the poet describes a tiny, ordinary event. A crow (a black bird) is sitting in a hemlock tree (a kind of tree, here a symbol of sadness). The crow moves, and that shakes some fine, powdery snow — the “dust of snow” — off the branch. The snow falls down onto the poet. Nothing dramatic happens — just snow knocked off a tree by a bird.

Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.

In this second stanza, the poet tells us the effect of that small moment. The falling snow gave his heart “a change of mood” — it lifted his spirits and made him feel better. It “saved some part” of a day he had “rued” (felt sorry or regretful about). So one tiny touch of nature rescued a part of his bad day.

What it says (paraphrase): The poet is in a low, sad mood. He is having a bad day — a day he “rued” (felt regret about). Then a small thing happens. A crow, sitting in a hemlock tree, shakes the branch. A little dust of snow (fine, powdery snow) falls down onto him. And just like that, something inside him lifts. His mood changes for the better. That tiny moment, he says, “saved some part of a day” he had hated. Figure 1.7 shows this before-and-after change.

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The theme / message: Small, ordinary moments in nature have the power to change how we feel. We don’t always need something big or dramatic to lift us out of sadness. A tiny gift from the world around us — even snow knocked off a branch by a crow — can rescue part of a bad day. So why did Frost choose such gloomy, ugly things — a crow (usually a bird of bad luck) and a hemlock (a poisonous tree)? On purpose. He picked the least beautiful, least cheerful things in nature. His point lands harder this way: if even a dark crow and a poison tree can bring joy, then beauty and hope can hide anywhere. Joy is not only in roses and sunshine.

Key devices: The crow and hemlock are symbols of gloom and sorrow, while the snow becomes a symbol of a small, surprising joy. The whole poem is one long sentence with a simple rhyme scheme (the line endings rhyme in a steady pattern), which makes it feel light and quick — like the moment it describes.

Fire and Ice

Here is the poem itself. Read it stanza by stanza:

Some say the world will end in fire
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favour fire.

In this first stanza, the poet talks about how the world might end. Some people believe it will end in fire, others believe it will end in ice. The poet then gives his own view. From what he has “tasted of desire” (felt of strong wanting and greed), he agrees with those who say the world will end in fire. Here fire stands for burning desire.

But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

In this second stanza, the poet imagines that the world had to be destroyed a second time (“perish twice”). He says he knows enough about hate to say that ice could also destroy the world. Ice is “also great” for destruction and “would suffice” — it would be enough to do the job. Here ice stands for cold hatred.

What it says (paraphrase): People argue about how the world will end. Some say it will end in fire. Some say in ice. The poet says that from what he has felt of desire (wanting things badly), he agrees with those who say fire. But — he adds — if the world had to be destroyed twice, he knows enough about hatred to say that ice would do the job just as well. Both can destroy everything.

The poem isn’t really about temperature. “Fire” and “ice” stand for two human feelings. Figure 1.6 shows what each one means.

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Why fire = desire and ice = hate. This is the clever heart of the poem, so let’s not take it as a given. Fire is hot. It spreads fast, it rages, it consumes. That is exactly how desire and greed feel — burning, restless, never satisfied, wanting more and more until everything is destroyed. Ice is the opposite: cold, still, hard. That is exactly how hatred feels when it sets in — a cold, frozen heart that feels nothing for others. The metaphor works because the physical feel of fire and ice perfectly matches the emotional feel of desire and hate.

The theme / message: Human emotions, taken to the extreme, are destructive. Both burning greed and cold hatred can ruin the world — and our own lives. The poem is a short, sharp warning to keep these feelings in check.

Key devices: The whole poem is built on metaphor (fire = desire, ice = hatred). It uses contrast (hot vs cold, fire vs ice) to set the two ideas against each other. There is also a touch of understatement in the last lines — saying ice “would suffice” (be enough) for destruction is a calm, almost casual way to describe the end of the world, which makes it chillingly effective.

Common Mistakes

These are the misreadings students fall into most often. Read each one — the “Why it seems right” part shows you the trap, and the “Actually” part sets it straight.

Quick Check

Test yourself. Pick an answer, then read the explanation to be sure you understand the why.

Practice Problems

Try writing your answer first, then tap to reveal a full model answer. Notice the length: short-answer questions need 2–3 sentences; long-answer questions need a full paragraph.

Easy

Medium

Challenge

Summary

Here is everything worth remembering, in short:

• A Letter to God by G.L. Fuentes is about Lencho, a poor farmer whose corn crop is destroyed by a hailstorm, leaving his family facing hunger.
• With total faith, Lencho writes a letter to God asking for a hundred pesos to start again.
• The kind postmaster, moved by this faith, collects money from his staff, friends and his own salary, and sends it signed ‘God’ to keep Lencho’s faith alive.
• The money is short, but Lencho’s faith is so complete he never doubts God. Instead he decides the post office staff are thieves — “a bunch of crooks”.
• The irony: the very people who helped him are the ones he blames. The real help came from human goodness, not from heaven.
• Plot arc (Figure 1.1): hope for rain → storm ruins the crop → letter to God (climax) → postmaster collects money → the ironic ending.
• Themes: faith, hope, human kindness, and irony.
• Devices: metaphor (“new coins”, “an ox of a man”, “mountains of clouds”); two conflicts (human vs nature, human vs human).
• Dust of Snow (Frost): a tiny moment in nature — snow shaken off a hemlock tree by a crow — lifts the poet’s sad mood. Message: small natural moments can rescue a bad day; beauty and hope can hide even in gloomy things.
• Fire and Ice (Frost): fire = desire/greed, ice = hatred/coldness. Message: extreme human emotions are destructive enough to end the world.

To see the whole story shape at a glance, here is the plot arc one more time.

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What’s Next

In the next chapter, Nelson Mandela — Long Walk to Freedom, you move from a quiet fictional village to a true and powerful real-life story. It is taken from the autobiography of Nelson Mandela, the leader who spent 27 years in prison fighting against apartheid (a cruel system of racial separation in South Africa) and then became its first Black president. Where “A Letter to God” asks what we should put our faith in, Mandela’s story asks an even bigger question: what does real freedom mean, and what does it cost? Keep your eye on the same skills — finding the theme, understanding why people act as they do, and spotting the writer’s message.