Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. [Exodus 20:8-11]
"A Trip on a Comet"
“God is going to hear you talking about that Tommy and he
won’t like it.” Steve told his best friend as they were going to
school Monday morning.
“Well I don’t get it. What is Sunday
even good for anyway? I don’t get it. We go to church every Sunday but
nobody knows why. Maybe it’s just a bunch of goofy rules the church made
up so why should we do it anyway?” Tommy said in a snotty way. Tommy
really was a good boy. He loved God and his family and all those things but
sometimes he just had questions and he wanted someone to tell him the truth.
Lots of us are like that.
“Tommy, be careful. If you keep asking
those kinds of questions, well God can hear you.” Steve said but Tommy
said “fine” and he meant it. He didn’t care if God did hear him.
If God wanted to show him why Sunday was important, that would suit Tommy just
fine. Tommy thought about it all day at school. As he walked out onto the
playground after school, he noticed that all of a sudden, there were not any
other kids around.
As he came around the corner to the bicycles racks,
he stopped short. He faced the biggest pair of feet he ever saw. They had
sandals and they together were so wide, he had to turn his head to see from one
toe to the other. Slowly Tommy’s eyes followed up the massive legs to the
edge of a huge white robe, on up the big body to a huge beaming face that was
all white with a glow like it has a light bulb inside of it. Behind each
shoulder, he saw the edges of a huge angel’s wing.
“Hello
Tommy, you ready to go?” The angel said with a deep voice that seemed to
fill every inch of the air for miles around.
“Who are you?”
Tommy asked feeling it was a pretty good question.
“I am Gabriel.
I am the chief Angel of God. Are you ready to go find out why there is a
Sunday?” Gabriel answered in a kind but firm voice.
“Where
are we going?” Tommy wanted to know.
“You will see when we
get there.” The angel answered.
“How will we get
there?” Tommy continued.
“Well by comet of course.
See?” And Gabriel gestured over to the swing sets where he had tied up to
the jungle gym a steaming, flaming, very angry comet that didn’t like
being tied up and it wanted to go right now.
“Well
I……….” Tommy hesitated but he didn’t have time to
finish deciding because in a flash he was holding on for dear life. The comet
wasn’t tied to the jungle gym any more, it was streaking through space
faster than ten rockets with fire and smoke streaming past as Tommy held on to
part of the comet and Gabriel’s toe. He suddenly heard himself going
“wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee” but then he suddenly heard Gabriel going
“wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee” too. Who knew angels go
“wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee”?
Suddenly it seemed like the comet
wasn’t moving. Tommy couldn’t see anything but could hear a sound
like something out of control below. “Where is everything Gabriel?”
Tommy asked.
“Everything hasn’t been created yet.” He
said, “Listen” and as Tommy listened, a different voice, a booming
and yet endlessly loving voice spoke with more authority than his dad and the
principle combined when it said…
“LET THERE BE LIGHT!”.
And so much light exploded, it was like a billion light bulbs.
Suddenly things were happening everywhere. He kept hearing that loving voice
saying “LET THERE BE…” and more and more stuff happened. Below
he saw a huge round thing form when he realized it was a planet and that it was
his home, the earth. The sky formed up, really, really fast when that voice
told it to and then the stars and the sun and then oceans and plants and plants
and animals and then……… and then………
Then
Tommy saw a little space of dust. And that voice said “LET US MAKE MAN IN
OUR IMAGE…” and like some invisible hands were making a model, a
shape of a person formed in the dirt and then it was like a complete person
with a face and fingers and everything but made all of dirt. Then a breeze came
to it but not a regular breeze, it came from that voice and when that breeze
hit the dirt guy, he sat up and he was a person.
Suddenly Tommy
understood and he turned to Gabriel’s toe and then looked up and he said,
“Gabriel is this why we have Sunday? To remember when God created the
world?”
“This is why we have the Sabbath, Tommy.”
Gabriel said, “Let me show you why we have a Sunday.” And the comet
took off but moved like a super fast elevator and suddenly Tommy was standing
on a hill. He held on to Gabriel’s toe still but he wasn’t home or on
the comet. He looked up at a huge signpost in the ground. But it wasn’t a
signpost. It was a beam of wood and as he followed it up into the air, he saw a
man, up on that wood, his arms out and he was stretched on a beam across. A
beam that was like, well, like,….
“It’s the
cross!” Tommy said gasping at what he was seeing. He turned to Gabriel to
try to understand what he was seeing but when he did, Gabriel was gone. He
turned back and the cross was gone but he saw the jungle gym and the swings and
his bike in the bike rack and there stood Steve looking at him funny.
“Tommy, where have you been? You look terrible.” Steve said helping
Tommy get his clothes back on right.
“Never mind that. I know why
we have a Sunday now Steve.”
“You do? Why?”
“Because of the Cross. Because Jesus died for us on that day and every
Sunday we worship him for it and it is a holy day this week and every week for
ever and ever and ever.” Tommy said reverently.
“Wow, that
must have been some trip. Where did you go?”
“I can’t
explain it now Steve.” Tommy said. “But here is a souvenir and I will
tell you later” he said handing Steve something and walking to his bike.
Steve looked down and opened his hand puzzled and wondered even more as he
picked up the tiny piece of comet chip and put it in his pocket for later.
There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. [Hebrews 4:9-10]
Get all
50
Children's Christian Stories in one handy volume. This is a perfect
collection for Elementary Teachers, Sunday School Teachers, Parents,
Babysitters or anyone wanting to share a story with a child or children that
may have a positive inpact on their future value system.
