The Sabbath Day
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]
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50
Children's Christian Stories in one handy volume. This is a perfect
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Babysitters or anyone wanting to share a story with a child or children that
may have a positive inpact on their future value system.
