Rubik’s Cube

The value of this short Christian story : Missions

Paul did not want to go on the mission trip to Ghana. He was absolutely terrified of going. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Olson had gone on many such trips and knew the joys that came from the hardships and especially the joys of sharing Jesus with people who wanted to know him so very much. So they made him go even though he pouted and looked very afraid all the way over on the plane no matter what mommy and daddy said to comfort him.

When they arrived and got settled, everything Paul was afraid of turned out to be true. He hated it all. They didn’t have a nice hotel room to stay in. They had a hut. The food was weird and hard to eat and made of things American kids don’t eat. The people looked funny, didn’t speak English and they even smelled strange to Paul. None of the events or work assignments they got were fun to Paul and he felt sick a lot because he didn’t like the food and didn’t sleep well. Noises in the night there were so different from home.

So Paul just stayed in his hut every day as his parents went out and ministered to the people of the village. No matter how many wonderful stories he heard of God’s miracles and the fun they were having getting to know the people, Paul was stubborn and he would not leave his hut. He just sat there day in and day out and played with his Rubik’s cube. He loved that toy. It was very good for keeping his mind off of his surroundings and trying to solve it which he never did.

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The Good Talker

The value of this short Christian story : Spiritual Gifts

“Who needs him, he’s such a loser.” Roger responded to his friend Steven when the subject of Danny came up.

“That’s a pretty harsh thing to say about your brother.” Steven responded. Roger knew it was harsh. He thought back when he and Danny were kids. Danny, the older by a year and a half, was always the guy who could “fix anything”. Oh, how mom and dad bragged on Danny when he fixed the washing machine or the lawnmower of unclogged a drain in the kitchen. At first, Roger tried to learn to do what Danny did but it never worked out.

Finally, in high school, Roger found his gift and like his own dad, it was the gift of gab. He won competition after competition in speech, debate and other forms of speech giving. He seemed to have a natural ability to talk to people, give speeches or just get people to see things his way or rally to his cause. It served him well as he moved into a sales career whereas Danny built a very successful auto mechanics business around his skill.

But sadly, for all the success the brothers had their dislike of each other kept them apart. Danny never understood by talking was a good skill and Roger thought being able to tinker with machines or pipes or wires was a geeky way to be. They fought about it endlessly until Danny moved out but holidays were always tense except when they went to see Grandma. Everything stopped at Grandma’s house because she saw them as her sweet baby boys and for a while when they visited her, they were sweet and children again, innocent and always ready to play.

Steven left his friend Roger in his office thinking about his brother. Roger wondered if there ever be a way to make things ok between them. He didn’t know that over I his garage, while fixing a car, Danny was wondering the same thing. Roger’s thoughts were broken by the phone ringing. He answered it. The sound of urgency in the voice was frightening.

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Willie the Billy Goat

The value of this short Christian story : Peace

The animals in the petting zoo loved the times when the children came to see them. So when Mr. Henderson, the owner of the petting zoo, brought them Willie the Billy Goat to join them, every one of the animals tried to help him learn how to get the children to like him. At first, Willie didn’t understand why the children ran away from him.

“Yesterday that little blond haired girl started crying when I came to see her.” Willie complained to Chelsea the Chicken. “All I wanted to do is be her friend.”

“So when she came over to pet you, was she smiling?” Chelsea tried to help her friend.

“Yes and I did my very best Billy Goat things to make friends with her.” Willie complained. “I ran in circles. I butted into fence posts and rose up on my hind legs and brayed and then to really let her know I was her friend, I ate her dolly.” He said sadly having no idea why a little human girl wouldn’t like that.

“Why don’t you do what I do?” Chelsea advised her new friend. “Just cluck around and peck the ground but don’t peck their shoes. They hate that. Then if its time go to your nest and lay an egg.” She said proudly.

But Willie was pretty sure he could never lay an egg so he sought more advice.

“Well I think they are afraid you might butt them. Little girls are easily frightened.” Said Peter the Puppy. “But here is what always works for me. Next time we are all out there, join me and my brothers and sisters and yip and jump up and down and pant with your tongue out and then when the children throw sticks, run and fetch them and then roll over and show your tummy. They love that.”

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Horace the Hippo

The value of this short Christian story : Envy

“What do you mean you aren’t pretty?” Terrance asked his friend Horace. Terrance was a toucan and since he was pretty sure he was very pretty, he felt sure everybody thought that they were pretty. But in his private thoughts, he did think Horace was pretty awful looking. Horace was a hippo.

“Well my mom always said I was pretty but then again, she was a hippo too. Terrance, hippos are just not pretty. Not like giraffes or peacocks at least.” He said jealously.

photo credit: Stig Nygaard

“Ok, well if you could pick one thing about a giraffe that you would want, what would it be?” Terrance said. Terrance, like all toucans, could cause wishes to come true for the people who they love or like a lot. That’s why people like having toucans for pets. It isn’t because they are nice birds. It's the dream granting thing that makes them great.

“Well if my neck was long and elegant, why all the pretty giraffes would love me and I would have tons of friends then.” Horace said his voice full of envy.

“Ok, it’s yours.” Terrance said, he flapped his wings wide and then said ‘BAKKAH!” which is the spell.

“Hey, HEY what’s happening?” Horace said in a panic as he felt his big hippo head begin to shoot high into the sky under the most beautiful giraffe neck that was growing from his hippo body. When stopped, Horace stood there not really knowing what to do with this much neck. Then, slowly at first and then faster, his head began to sway back and forth like an out of control carnival ride. His big hippo head was too heavy for that tiny neck. All of a sudden, it toppled downward. All around the jungle, the animals heard Horace yelling for help as the ground grew closer and closer and then WUMP! It hit the ground.

“Murmph mr murtle mu” Terrance heard his friend say.

“Just a moment, let me get your head out of the sand.” The toucan said and he pulled Horace’s head back until it popped back into the air and he laid it on its side with that big giraffe neck just winding everywhere back to his body.

“This isn’t working Terrance. Not only is it dangerous, I think I look foolish with this huge neck attacked to my big fat head.

“BAKKAH” Terrance squawked and Horace was himself again.

“I still want to be pretty. Like the Pelican with those beautiful long legs. They can even sleep on just one leg. I wish I could do that,” he said lifting one of his squatty hippo legs and then putting down before he fell.

“Ok, let’s try that.” Terrance said and out went his wings “BAKKAH”. Said the bird and the spell took effect.

“Here we go again.” Horace said gasping as he shot into the air with his legs growing long and skinny under him. When he stopped, he was standing tall enough to see over the grass. He peered down at his four pelican legs quivering trying to hold up his massive hippo weight. “Wow, Terrance, my legs are so pretty.” Horace said with admiration and he started to walk toward the marshes where the other pelicans stayed. But the pelicans didn’t see Horace as pretty because of his long legs.

“Yikes!” many screamed and took flight thinking it was some kind of monster. Other’s laughed thinking Horace had come up with a strange costume. Others ran to him with Band-Aids thinking he was the scene of a terrible collision between a bird and a hippo.

“Oh Terrance, nothing is working.” Horace said bitterly.

“BAKKAH” Terrance said flapping his wings and Horace was back to normal.

“How will I ever stop being ugly?” He said with great sadness in his heart.

“Horace I told you before, you are already pretty. When you say you are ugly, you insult God our creator. Way back in the beginning of time he made hippos. He made toucans and pelicans and giraffes and even humans and each of them was perfectly made for what God wanted them to be. We are not made to look pretty to each other. Look to your friends, the hippos and be at peace that you are what God made you to be. Envy is a way of saying ‘God you did a bad job’ and that makes God very sad indeed.” The wise bird counseled his friend.

“Well I don’t want God to be sad. I want to be all He made me to be, not what he made someone else to be. I want to be the best Horace the Hippo he ever made.” Horace said his big hippo chest sticking out proudly.

“Oh Horace?” Horace and Terrance both heard a melodic female voice sing out. Just then, Henrietta Hippo stepped from behind the grasses. “Will you take me to the waterfall today?” she said looking at him with big eyes that were full of admiration.

“Wow, she is pretty.” Horace said to Terrance and then he waddled her way doing a dance to make himself more pretty to her. Off they went as Terrance looked on in amazement.

“Those are two ugly hippos,” he said to himself. Then he flew back to his tree to see if there was a pretty toucan there who might like a trip to the waterfall too.

The Rumor with Furry Feet

The value of this short Christian story : Gossip

You wouldn’t think Christian people would say bad things about each other. But they do. At Eric and Pammy’s church, some of the kids gossiped a lot. Usually it was silly stuff but sometimes some of the kids acted snooty to some of the other kids in the Sunday School class even though Mrs. Wallace the teacher talked to them a lot about Christian unity and loving each other. Gossiping is not love, that is one thing the kids knew. But it happens.

Then a gossip got started that was really really awful. Pammy heard it from Nicola. Nicola leaned over after Sunday School and whispered, “You know Erin? Well somebody at school saw her with an older boy and…..” she continued to whisper things in Pammy’s ear that just couldn’t be true. Erin was a good girl and the rumor suggested she was being very naughty with a boy. Well Pammy didn’t repeat the details but she told her brother Eric about it and Eric was very worried.

“Erin is one of our closest friends and she loves Jesus with all her heart. This kind of rumor could ruin her reputation and hurt her really bad.” But the rumor kept spreading and soon it got to Erin. The day Pammy say Nicola whispering in Erin’s ear, it just crushed her inside to see what happened. Erin burst into tears and ran from the Sunday School room and didn’t come back for weeks.

Both Pammy and Eric felt awful about it. But they didn’t say anything even though they both imaged how Erin was feeling all alone at her house thinking everybody thought she was such a sinful girl and she wasn’t. That night Eric had a dream. It was really frightening and he woke up with a gasp and had to sit out in the living room with a glass of water to try to get it out of his head.

“I dreamed about the rumor that hurt Erin last night Pammy.” He told his sister the next day.

“What happened in your dream?” she was dying to know.

“Well we were at church and the kids were all whispering that rumor to each other. Suddenly, the rumor jumped out of the mouth of Nicola and became a monster. It had a huge round body and a tiny little head but huge lips on the front. Its fur was long and full of tangles and dirt and filth because it never cleaned itself. It had legs like a duck with big huge feet like bigfoot has and the feet were covered with nasty black fur and he could run really fast all over spreading himself, the rumor to everybody he could hunt down.” Eric said his eyes wide like he was dreaming it again.

“Then it started chasing kids down and when they couldn’t run fast enough, he jumped on them and fell on them with his big nasty fat lips and put the rumor all over them so they could never get rid of it. Finally it go to Erin and when it got to her, it ate her completely up and she was gone and we never had her in Sunday School again.” He finished. Both Eric and Pammy’s hearts were racing from the dream. While it was a silly monster, the damage the rumor did was so scary because they knew the damage was real.

“We will lose Erin if we don’t do something. We have to tell dad.” Pammy concluded. As soon as she said that, Eric knew she was right. When their dad got home from work, they told him everything. As soon as he heard that Erin had stopped coming to church he called Pammy and Eric’s mom in.

“We can’t let Erin get hurt like this.” He said. “I am sure Erin’s parents don’t know why she won’t go to church.” Then he told Eric and Pammy’s mom to call Erin’s parents and tell them what was going on and that they weren’t going to take it lying down. Eric and Pammy’s pride in their parents just burst from them. Then their dad called Mrs. Wallace and let her in on it. Before the evening came, a plan was in place. The next Sunday Mrs. Wallace confronted the rumor face to face.

“This rumor about Erin is false.” She told the Sunday School class. “You all know Erin is a good girl. Satan uses rumors to destroy the church and if we don’t stop Satan, he is going to destroy someone we love, Erin. We aren’t going to stand for that are we?”

“NO” the kids in Sunday School roared. Mrs. Wallace nodded to Eric and he went out and got Erin.

“The weapon that defeats rumors and the devil is love. We all owe Erin an apology and we need to pray that she forgives us, that we forgive each other and that God keeps us honest and helps all watch out for each other that rumors don’t hurt our brothers and sisters again.”

The prayer ended the rumor and Erin was as happy as ever.

“I had another dream last night.” Eric told his sister the next day.

“About the rumor?” she asked.

“Yep. The rumor with the furry feet walked into our Sunday School class to attack more kids and it was faced with Mrs. Wright leading us all in prayer. It grabbed its chest and dropped dead right there on the spot. Then from its useless body, beautiful flowers started to grow and continued to grow until we couldn’t see the filthy monster at all, just the pretty flowers that grew from its body.”

So their Sunday School class got stronger and grew closer because they knew what to do when God’s enemy tries to hurt someone in the church with a rumor. And now you know too so if you see the rumor with the furry feet, you can kill him and share all the pretty flowers that grow from his stomach with everyone in your class.

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