Rainer Maria Rilke felt that the world's joys most truly belonged to the young. His 14 'Stories of God' captured for them the magic, charm & wisdom of fairy & folk tales. "By Way of Introduction: The Tale of God’s Hands" introduces the book's framework, the storyteller & his neighbors. The framework is that the storyteller will tell stories to townspeople & they in turn will tell the stories to children. The 1st story is about God & His hands. St Nicholas briefly appears. "The Stranger" is another critical episode concerning God's hands, related to a stranger. In "Why the benevolent God wants there to be poor people," we meet a teacher & are given an answer to the question posed in the title while told of an encounter between God & a sculptor. In "How betrayal came to Russia," we meet the storyteller’s lame neighbor, Ewald. The tale told Ewald is set in the time of Ivan the Terrible & answers the title's question. "How old Timofej died singing" is set in czarist Ukraine. Ewald is told of an old singer of epics & fairy tales. It also answers the question posed in its title. "The Song of Justice" is set in the Ukraine while it was ruled by Polish noblemen & at civil war with the Cossacks. In the tale told Ewald, we again meet an ancient singer, here of a song of justice. "A Scene from the Venetian Ghetto" is told to a Mr Baum, a civic leader. Set loosely in Renaissance Venice, it tells of an old Jewish goldsmith confined to a ghetto, of his grand-daughter, Esther, of her child & of the sea. In "About One Who Eavesdrops on the Stones," Ewald learns about Michelangelo. "How the thimble came to be God" is told to a group of evening clouds, both young & old, impertinent & wise. They & we hear a tale of 7 children & discover the answer to the question posed in its title. In "A Tale of Death & a Strange Postscript to It," our storyteller has a walk with a gravedigger & tells of death & this strange postscript. "An Organization Called Forth by an Urgent Need" tells of a young musician on a civic errand on behalf of Mr Baum & relates a tale of 3 painters. "The Beggar & the Proud Maiden", set in Renaissance Florence & told to the teacher met previously, tells of an encounter outside a church. "A Tale told to the Dark," tells of one man’s search for meaning & his encounter with his long-lost sole childhood friend.