Bobby was jumping up and down with excitement. Uncle Jeff had just pulled into their driveway, and he always had some story to tell. Uncle Jeff was a train driver, and if that were not exciting enough, he always saw the funny side of things that happened on the side of the railway line as he went by. It didn’t take as much concentration as driving on the road, so there was plenty of time to look around as the train chugged along the line.
After Uncle Jeff got settled down with a cup of tea in his hand, Bobby snuggled up to him and said, “How did your train driving go last week, Uncle Jeff?”
“Well”, said Uncle Jeff, “We had quite an eventful week last week. We saw lots of animals near the line in different places”.
“Oh”, said Bobby, “Do tell us about them! What were they? ”
“One day we went past this farm where there was a pond for drinking water at the bottom of the hill. The sheep were all in a mob up near the railway line, so I gave a loud toot on the train whistle as we went past. You know, those silly sheep took fright and went galloping down towards the pond. When they got to it, they split in half and some went one way around it while the others went the other way. But would you believe it, there was one sheep sillier than the rest because it kept going straight ahead and flipped straight into the water! It was so funny to watch”, and Uncle Jeff chuckled as he remembered it all over again.
“Can sheep swim?” Bobby asked.
“Well, we asked ourselves the same question”, Uncle Jeff said, “But you know they can!”
“How do you know?” Bobby asked.
“Well, when we came back, we saw the same mob up near the line again”, Uncle Jeff said, “And this time there was one wet green sheep with them! He hadn’t only gone into the pond, but it was full of green slime and weeds, and the sheep got covered in it all. So he came out a green sheep. Ha,ha”, and Uncle Jeff laughed again at the memory of it all.
“Oh, that WAS funny!” Bobby said, “ What are the other stories?”
“They will have to wait for another time”, Uncle Jeff said as he got up and took his mug out to the kitchen and began to talk to the grown-ups there.
There’s a moral to this story…..the Bible says we are all like sheep that have gone astray, we have all gone our own way and it’s only the Lord Jesus that can get us out of the mess we find ourselves in. Out of all those sheep that went running down the hill, most of them turned and kept out of trouble. All except for the one that went straight into the pond! That one is just like us when we follow the mob that is running into danger. We have to make sure that we use our head before we lose it, and be careful to keep away from friends who take us to wrong places.