This children’s story illustrates very important points that adults would do well to follow. When we think of all the bickering and fighting that goes on between the nations today, we should remember that we are all part of the human family, and all need each other with our differences and abilities. It is only as we do this that there will be peace in the world.…….

Jack and his sister Sue were squabbling out in the yard. Jack was playing with his new toy car, and Sue wanted to have a turn. She got very cross when Jack picked it up and ran inside. She followed him and tried to take it from him.

“Leave it alone”, Jack shouted, “It’s a boy’s toy! Girls don’t play with trucks! They’re too dumb! They play with silly dolls and things!”

“Mum!” Sue wailed, “I’m  not dumb, am I?”

Mum tried to keep the peace. “Of course not,” she said, “But you ARE different to Jack just the same, not silly or dumb, just different! You are both part of our family and we love you both the same. We need you both”.

Sue quietened down and left Jack to his truck while she ran to get her doll.

“Not silly”, she thought, “My dolly is the best after all!”

Jack made loud engine noises, and ran his  car around among the cushions on the floor.

“Silly girls!” he muttered.

That night, after Jack had got into bed, he started thinking about what he would do with his truck the next day. His thoughts got fainter and fainter as he drifted into sleep.

Suddenly he heard voices. Somehow he knew it was his head talking. It was saying to his feet….. “I don’t need you! I’m the important one! I’m at the top and you are only at the bottom end of Jack!”      “Don’t be silly”, said the feet, “Where would you go without me? But I’m a lot better than the hands, they are only halfway down Jack!”   The hands answered in a high crabby voice, “And what would put the socks and shoes on you if it weren’t for me? Besides, my fingers are a lot longer than your toes!!”      “My toes might be short, but they are just as important as your silly fingers! Remember when my little toe was sore last week? I had to hobble around to save it getting hurt worse!”

“Be quiet!” the head commanded in a loud voice, “I’m getting tired of listening to you fighting! You ALL need each other. And I need you all too. Who would put the food in my mouth if the hands didn’t work? And where would we all go if  the feet didn’t take us? It’s quite true that when one thing hurts, we all hurt with it. Why, I felt that sore toe too when it got hurt. So be quiet, and be satisfied with what you are. We are ALL important, we are just different, that’s all.  And we are all part of Jack!”

Jack woke up with a start. It had all seemed so real. His different parts all arguing with each other? How silly could they be! As he snuggled down under the blankets again, he thought how glad he was that he had all those parts and that they all did different things for him.

He still remembered that dream the next morning, and then thought how he and Sue had been fighting the day before. Of course they were different! She was a girl and he was a boy. But they were all part of the same family. Perhaps he could let Sue have a turn with his truck  today after all.

Sally had just come in from school and was munching an apple that Mum had given her. The kitchen was lovely and warm and had the wonderful smell of cooking Christmas cakes.

“How did the Kid’s Club after school go today?” Mum asked.

“It was really cool” said Sally as she took another bite.

“What was the lesson about?” asked Mum.

“It was all about ..re..redemshun, I think the word was”, Sally said.

“Oh, you mean redemption”, Mum said, “That’s a really important word to know. How did your teacher explain it to you?”

“Well, she told us a story about a boy who had a little red sailing boat. He took it down to the river to play with and the string broke and it  went off down the stream and he couldn’t get it back”.        “Oh,” said Mum, “and what happened next?”

“Well, after a long time, he went down town past the second-hand shop, and saw his red boat in the window for sale. He went inside and told the man it was his. He was sure because it had a little scratch mark near the front of it where it had scraped past the rocks when it got loose from its string.”

“Really,” said Mum, “What did the man say to him?”

Sally took another bite of her apple, and said, “The man said it was too bad because he had just paid good money for it and if the boy wanted it back he would have to pay the price on the ticket.”

“Well, that was bad luck”, Mum said, “What did the boy do then?”

“He wanted it really badly, so he went home and emptied his money box out, but it wasn’t enough, so he got extra jobs after school and saved every cent he could get”, said Sally. “After a while, when he had saved enough money, he went back to the shop to get the boat. It was still in the window so he paid for it, and took it home. He was so pleased, he said it was twice his now. It was his because it was given to him in the first place, and it was his the second time because he had worked hard to pay for it all over again.”

“Well, that’s a neat story,” said Mum, “Where does the word redemption come into it?”

“Our teacher explained that it means to buy back something that once belonged to you and then got lost. The boy had to buy back his little boat, and then it was really his all over again. That’s what re…redemption means.”

“That’s right,” said Mum, “but there must have been more to the lesson than that. What else did the teacher say?”

Sally threw the core of the apple into the rubbish bin. “She explained that is what Jesus did for us when He died on the cross. When Adam sinned, people became lost to God like the little boat going down stream, and that is why the Lord Jesus came to earth to pay for people’s sin. God had always said that those people who sin will have to die to pay for it. He knew they would never be able to be good enough on their own. And Jesus was the only person who never sinned, so He was able to pay for everyone’s sin if they ask Him to. I wonder why people wanted to kill Him when He only ever wanted to do good things for them?”

“That’s what sin does to us,” Mum said, “It makes us all bitter and twisted inside. So what was the point of the lesson?”

“Just as the boy had to pay redemption money for his little boat, so Jesus had to pay for our redemption by dying on the cross, and if we come to Him, He will have bought us back from being lost.”

“That IS a neat story,” said Mum, “And you’ve learnt it really well. Now it’s time for chores so off you go and do them”. She watched as Sally skipped away from the room and smiled to herself. She was so glad that she had learnt this lesson herself when she was a little girl; now she was a Mum and she knew this was the best thing she could have done.

    People often ask this question….it just seems that life isn’t fair!! We do the best we can and then things go wrong for us!

The Bible tells us about a man like this, a good man who did the best he could and then he lost everything. It also gives us a picture of why this happened which will help us to see things differently when things go wrong for us too.

If we turn to the Bible and look at Job chapter one, verse one, we read….”there was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was perfect and upright, one who feared (respected and reverenced) God and who hated evil.”

So we see that Job always did his best and as we read down the chapter, we see the things that he did for himself and for his family. Let’s turn it into a story……

One day, God’s team of angels came to report to Him. God noticed a shiny, glistening, sneaky looking one among them who  didn’t usually come, and recognised him instantly.

“Where have you come from, Satan?” He asked.

“I’ve been walking up and down all over the place,” Satan replied shiftily.

“Have you seen any person as good as My servant Job is?”, God asked, “No-one else is as good in the whole world as he is….he loves Me and hates everything evil! He makes me an offering every day, not only for himself but also for his family.”

“Ho”, sneered Satan looking at God, ” No wonder he is so good! You look after him on every side, and have given him all he’s got! I bet if you took it all away from him it’d be a different story! He would curse You to Your face if that happened!!”

God knew His man, and He knew He could trust Job to do the right thing.

“OK,” He said to Satan, “We’ll see. I’m allowing you to take away everything that he has. I know he will stand firm for Me.”

Satan chuckled gleefully. ” I’ll make him sorry for following God’s ways. I can beat him!”

So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.

The next day, Job got up early as he usually did, and made the morning sacrifice for himself and his wife. Then he made another sacrifice to cover each of his children. As he did this, he prayed for each of them, as he did every day. “Lord”, he said, “Please help the boys to stand firm for you; help them to resist temptations, and always be helpful  to their mother and sisters. I pray for the girls, Lord that they will not be vain with how they look, but that they will try their best to be beautiful with their minds and their speech.”

Job knew that his eldest son was putting on a party that day for his brothers and sisters, and he hoped that everything would go well for them all. While he was sitting there after breakfast thinking about them, he saw one of his servants rushing up the path. He could tell something was wrong.

“What’s the matter?” he called out as the man got close enough to hear.

“We were out in the field ploughing with the bullocks and the donkeys were there beside them when a marauding tribe from over the hill came and rounded them up, killing all the herdsmen, and I’m the only one who got away!”

With that, he fell down on the ground panting with the run, and fright at what he had seen.

The man had hardly finished telling Job this when another servant came panting up. “Oh!,” he said, “There was a massive lightning storm over the paddock where the sheep were, and they have all been struck dead as well as the other servants there. I’m the only one who managed to get away to tell you!”

A third servant came panting in from another direction and said, “The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yes, and killed the servants with swords; and I only am escaped alone to tell you.”

Job hardly had time to take all this in when another servant came rushing in from the direction of the oldest boy’s house.

“Oh, oh,” he wailed when he saw Job, “Your sons and your daughters were eating their meal and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house when there was a terrific gust of wind rushing in from the desert like a tornado, and the roof was lifted off and the whole thing collapsed on everyone else in the house, and they are all dead! I’m the only one to  escape and tell you!”

Job had been sitting down all this time, and now he stood up and tore his long robe off his shoulders. He went inside and shaved the hair all off his head to show how upset he was.

His wife and servants wondered how he would cope with all this bad news and the disasters that had happened. But he didn’t curse or swear, or even complain. It didn’t even enter his head to ask God why this had all happened.

Instead, he got down on his knees and prayed in front of everyone left in his house, and said, ” I was born naked with nothing, and I will go back to God the same way, with nothing. The LORD gave me these things, and the LORD has taken them away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”

In all these disasters Job didn’t sin or complain and blame God foolishly.

Soon after Job had had all these dreadful tragedies in his house and  on the farm, God’s  team came together once more. As God looked around them all, He saw that Satan was there among them again.

God looked straight at him, and said, “And where have you come from this time?”

“From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.” Satan replied loftily.

       “Have you seen my servant Job lately, that there is no-one like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one who fears Me and hates everything that is evil? In spite of all you’ve done to him, he still stays following Me even though you’ve done your best to destroy him for no reason.”

And Satan answered the LORD, and said, ” Skin for skin, yes, all that a man has will he give for his life. If you put your hand on him now and touch his bone and his flesh, he will curse You to Your face!”

God knew that Job wouldn’t let Him down in this test either and He said to Satan, “Look, he is in your hand; do what you like to him, but save his life.”

Satan grinned evilly as he went out from the presence of the LORD, and thought to himself, “I’ll fix Job this time! I’ll make him curse God yet!”

As Job went to bed that night, he was still very sad thinking about his family who had died. Somehow, his back didn’t feel too good. He rubbed it carefully, and then felt his legs hurting a bit too. When he got up in the morning, his feet were so sore he could hardly walk. His arms were hurting too and as he looked at them when he was getting dressed, he could see that they were covered with boils coming up all over them. So that was why his back and feet and legs were all hurting! He had boils all over him, even on his face and in his hair!

He was so sore that he didn’t know what to do with himself. He sat down by the fire that had gone out, and picked up the ashes and put them over his bare skin each morning. He sat there during the day moaning to himself with the pain. He couldn’t bear to get up and walk around, he was so sore.

 “How can you sit there like that Job?” she asked, “I can’t understand how God could let all these dreadful things happen to us! Why don’t you curse Him and die?”

“Come, come, my dear, ” he said, “You are talking like one of the foolish women. What? Don’t you realise that as we receive good at the hand of God, He can also send us bad things? ”

And in spite of all this, Job did not sin by complaining .

Day after day went by, and Job didn’t seem to get any better. His friends and relations heard about his troubles, and three of them came to see him. They were horrified when they saw how bad he was. They sat down with him by the fire and said nothing to him for several days. They really didn’t  know what TO say.

At last Job spoke and said, “I wish I’d never been born! It would have been better for me to have never lived than to come to this day!”

Eliphaz, the eldest one of his friends said, “You must have done something dreadful Job, for God to allow these things to happen to you! He must be wanting to teach you a lesson about something. Bad things don’t happen to good people, so you’ll just have to make the best of a bad job. God must be trying to teach you a lesson!”

Job said again, “My life isn’t worth living like this! You’re not helping me at all with what you are saying. What have I been doing wrong that you have seen?”

Bildad piped up next and said, “Look Job, you know that God doesn’t punish people unless they’ve done something wrong. Rushes can’t grow without water, and God doesn’t throw away people who are good!”

“I know that God is the Mighty Creator,” said Job, “He has made all the stars and given them names. Oh! If only I could talk to Him face to face, I would ask why this is all happening to me! I would ask Him to show me my sin!”

“You MUST have done something bad Job!” Zophar was the next to speak. “You think you are right! If only God would tell you so you could put it right!”

“You guys all think you’ve got all the answers!” Job said, “I just wish you would all keep quiet! I know what I’m thinking, and I tell you this…even if God were to kill me, I would still trust in Him. I know He is my salvation in spite of everything!”

Job’s three friends had no answers left, and they just started saying the same things all over again.

“I’ve heard all this before”, Job said in the end, “You’re a miserable lot of comforters! I’m ready to die, I don’t know why God doesn’t take me away!”

The other two said some more things along the same lines and Job said, “Well, I don’t know why this is all happening, but one thing I DO know, I know that one day I will see God with my eyes, and that He will come to this earth. Even though I can’t find Him now, I know He can see me!”

Job’s friends had come to an end of talking, and Bildad made a short speech saying, “Well, how CAN a person be made clean before God? We’re all just like worms anyway!”

Job seemed to gather strength, and he started to talk about how great God was and about all the wonderful things He had made like the stars and the animals, and all the gold and silver that were in the earth.

“The most important thing of the lot,” he went on to say, “is to fear the Lord and follow Him, THAT is the true wisdom!”

While all this conversation was going on between them, another man had come along and sat down with them. When he could see that Job’s three friends had finished talking, then he started. “Look here Job,” he said, “You want God to talk to you. Well, I’LL talk to you and tell you where you’ve gone wrong. I’m a lot younger than the rest of you, but I know a few things. Look how God orders the weather that we get! He brings the rain and the snow, and He spreads out the clouds in the sky. He is awesome, and no-one else is as great as He is!”

While he was talking, the sky got darker and darker. Enormous clouds began to form, and they could see the clouds were bringing a tornado. As the wind picked up and began to whirl around, they all heard this Voice seeming to come out of the wind.

“None of you know what you’ve been talking about! Where were you all when I made the earth, the moon and the stars? When I told the tides to go in and out, and stopped the waves going any further than the beaches?”

They were all afraid as the Voice went on. Somehow, they knew that it was God Who was talking to them. “Have you made the hawks fly high in the sky? The peacocks with their beautiful feathers? And made the ostriches have no brains when it comes to laying its eggs in the sand and leaving them?”

Then God spoke directly to Job. “You didn’t know what you were talking about! Can you make the great whales in the sea, and the sea monsters?”

“Oh,” said Job, “I see now that I didn’t know what I as talking about! I wish I’d kept my mouth shut!” and he put his face down towards the ground.

God spoke to the others there next, and told them that they were quite wrong to have blamed Job for his troubles. None of them knew the real reason for them. It was nothing to do with Job being good or bad; it was to prove to Satan that Job would stand firm for God. Even though he wished he had never been born, yet he had never blamed God for his trouble.

“Now you others are to get an animal sacrifice each, and get Job to pray for you,” God said to them, “None of you have spoken right about Me like Job has. When Job does this, I will forgive you your foolishness.”

Job prayed for his friends in spite of the horrid things they had said to him….what a lesson this is to us! God forgave them, and then all Job’s other friends and relations came around and brought him presents to make up for the things he had lost.

The Bible tells us this about the end of Job…..

So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses. He had also seven sons and three daughters.

       And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third, Keren-happuch. And in all the land were no women found so fair and beautiful as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brothers. 

So the next time we see bad things happening to good people, we know that perhaps it is so God can point to them and say to Satan, “Look at My servant there, I know that he (or she) will stand firm for Me no matter what happens!” Let’s make sure that we never let God down by complaining and moaning when things go wrong, but hold our head high and say like Job did, ” Even if God were to kill me, I would still trust in Him. I KNOW He is my salvation in spite of everything!”

Bobby came running up the steps onto the front deck and in the ranch-slider throwing his bag down in the corner on his way to the kitchen.

“Wow”, he exclaimed, ”it’s been a busy day! I never had time to stop and think. Our team has been chosen to represent the school in the inter school sports next month”.

“That’s great Bobby,” Mum said,” I suppose that will mean Saturday training each weekend”.

“Yes,” Bobby said sitting on the stool and taking the drink Mum had passed him. “It’s going to be a busy term”.

So it proved to be. Bobby found the training sessions very strenuous, but he enjoyed every bit of it.

As the family got ready to go to church the next morning, Bobby thought wistfully of his bed as he got dressed. Wouldn’t it be good to have a break from church just this once? he thought as he dragged his jersey on. But he knew it was no use to even suggest it. Going to church wasn’t an option in their household, there was never any question of what they would be doing on Sunday mornings!

Bobby mostly enjoyed going to church. The singing was rather cool, and their class leader was really neat. But he found his mind starting to wander this particular Sunday, and he visualised some of the passes he was to make in his next game. Slowly he pulled his mind back to the story the leader was telling. He was saying, “and so the prophet said to Eli the priest, ‘Those who honour God, God will honour’, and that is just the same for us today.”

Bobby stirred himself, and listened to the rest of the lesson.

That evening, Bobby picked up his school books and went out into the dining-room to do some home work that he needed to finish.

“I guess I should ask you to pray for me Dad,” Bobby said, “This work is really hard!”

“You know Bobby,” Dad said thoughtfully, “I don’t think I could pray this for you. You could have done that homework last evening instead of watching TV”.

“Aw, Dad, I was tired last night after all that football practice”, Bobby said.

“You know Bobby, if you put God’s day ahead of things you want to do, God will honour you for it”, Dad said.

“Funny you should say that Dad,” Bobby said, “Our leader said something the same this morning in class”.

“Yes, well this is one of the principles that always stands,” Dad replied, “If you make time to do your home-work ahead of things like TV, and keep God’s day special for Him, He will help you to get through your lessons and tests far better than if you spent time on Sunday for your homework! “

Go still means what He said to the priest Eli…you can read it for yourself in the Bible…

Why are you scorning my sacrifice and my offering that I commanded for my dwelling place? You have honoured your sons more than you have me by having made yourselves fat from the best parts of all the offerings of my people Israel.’ Therefore the LORD, the God of Israel, says, ‘I really did say you’re your house and your ancestor’s house would serve me forever.’ But now the LORD says, ‘May it never be! For I will honour those who honour me, but those who despise me will be cursed!                                                                                                                                (1 Samuel 2:29-30)

        “Mum!” Bobby called out, “Mum, come quick!”

Mum could tell that something was wrong by Bobby’s voice, and she hurried out to the yard where he was. He had been wanting to get his trike past the lawn mower, and was trying to lift it out of his way, when it fell on his foot. Now he was stuck, and couldn’t move. Mum managed to lift the mower off his foot and he stood up gingerly rubbing where it was sore. Nothing was bleeding so he hobbled around for a bit and then came right.

The next day, he was playing out in the yard with one of his toy tractors. He was trying to get it under a bridge that he had built with some loose bricks, but it kept falling down and the tractor couldn’t move. “Now if there was only someone else here to hold this up,” he thought to himself, “I could get it underneath alright. Mum!” he yelled out, “Can you come and help me?”

Mum looked out the kitchen window and saw what he was doing. She was busy with her baking and couldn’t leave it right then.

“Mum!” Bobby yelled again, “Come quickly!”

But Mum didn’t come at all. She knew that what Bobby was doing wasn’t really important and that it could wait a while.

Just then baby Joel came toddling out dragging his cuddly blanket behind him. He went over to the coffee table where Mum had her sewing gear, and stretched for the sharp scissors and pin-cushion . Mum saw what he was doing, and ran over to stop him reaching them, and said sternly, “No! not for Joel!”   She knew that he would hurt himself with them if he got them.

Bobby came in from outside looking quite aggrieved, and said grumpily, “You didn’t come when I called you!”

“No,” said Mum, “I was busy, and you didn’t really need me at all. What you were doing wasn’t important!”

Sally came in from her after school  Kid’s Club just then, and said, “Does praying always work, Mum? Our leader was talking about praying this afternoon.”

“Well, it’s like this,” said Mum as she got some cold drink out of the frig for them all. “We can’t expect God to jump every time we pray to Him and do what we ask. Yes, there are times when God does act quickly and give us what we have asked for and we think that’s good, God has answered my prayer. Just as I ran out into the yard yesterday to help Bobby lift the mower off himself. But then there are other times when we pray and nothing seems to happen and then we think that God hasn’t answered our prayer. He knows that what we have asked for isn’t really important and we can work it out for ourselves like Bobby with his tractor and broken bridge.”

“It sure would have been good if you could have come though,” Bobby said.

“Maybe,” said Mum, “But you managed yourself in the end didn’t you! Then there is the third sort of answer, the one that is a straight out ‘No!’ like I said to Joel when he wanted the scissors to play with. He didn’t know that they could hurt him, he thought he could handle it himself. That’s like when God DOES say NO to our prayers….He knows what we have asked for is not good for us to have and could land us in a lot of trouble and hurt.”

Sally was silent for a minute thinking this all over.

“I guess God DOES answer each of those sorts of prayers,” she said thoughtfully, “The first one was a ‘yes’, and the last one was a ‘no’…what was the middle one Mum?”

“I guess you could say it was a ‘wait a while’ answer, or a ‘you can do it yourself’ answer,” Mum said, “We can’t order God around, not even with begging or pleading. We have to be happy with whatever answer He gives us and remember that He always knows what is best for us!

Now off you go and do your chores Sally, and tidy up your mess outside Bobby ! ”

What is heaven really like? The trouble is that no-one has ever gone right there and then come back to tell us. Some people have gone right to the door and peeped in, and come back to tell us how bright and full of light it is. There is a wonderful feeling of love, and then they have woken up in their hospital bed and realised they are back in this world again. Some have heard beautiful music such as has never been heard on earth, and others have had a sensation of everything being so spotless and clean that this earth seems very grubby compared to it.

So what does the Bible tell us about heaven? Paul told us in one of his letters how he had seen heaven, and that he couldn’t begin to describe it, words wouldn’t do it justice! Besides he didn’t know how to begin telling the things that he saw. He wasn’t sure whether he had really gone  there or just had a vision of it all.

It left him with the feeling that he just wanted to go and be there NOW. But he knew that he hadn’t finished the work that God had for him to do on earth, so he would be content to wait for God’s time. He knew that life with the Lord Jesus was going to be far better than anything he had ever known before.

Jesus is the only person on earth who knew what heaven was like because He had come from Heaven and was going to go back there. But He too didn’t tell us very much about it, because He knew we couldn’t understand it while we live on earth. He told us that there is plenty of room for everyone who wants to come to Him, but that there is only one way to get there. He said the gate to heaven is very narrow and quite hard to find; in fact He is the only way to get there. Some people think they can get there by their own good works, but that road is a dead end and will never get them there.

People don’t want to humble themselves to walk with God, and they think that their way is good enough. What a dreadful shock to go through death’s door and find God isn’t there!

Sometimes when people are right at death’s door they seem to see heaven open up before them, just enough to give those beside them a faint idea of what they can see. In the book of The Acts, we read how Stephen saw heaven open up before him and the Lord Jesus standing beside His Father God just before he was killed  by the Pharisees.

One time, a lady’s daughter who was with her mother as she died, heard her say with wonder in her voice, ”Oh! I had no idea it was like this!”

King David could say,  You will show me the path of life: in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand there are pleasures for evermore  (Psalm 16,v 11). And As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Your likeness. (Psalm 17:15)

One thing we need to realise is that no person on earth can go through the door to heaven with us. The only person we can call on is the Lord Jesus, and He has promised to always be with those who have come to know Him on earth. In fact, He is calling everyone to come to Him right now. He says, ”Look, come to Me NOW! I am coming unexpectedly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according to what he has done”.

God has told us that heaven is a place where there are no more sins or horrid things; people won’t get sick or be sad, and we can’t even begin to imagine the things that He has ready and waiting to show us. If we think that life here is great, it is going to be far more exciting than we can imagine in heaven!