Boys and girls, can you tell me about some times when you’ve had to help other people, especially when you didn’t want to or when you’ve been in a bad mood? Well, that’s what Jesus expects us to do. He expects us to help others even when we don’t want to help them. He expects us to love others just like he loves us.
I’m going to tell you a little story about one little boy who learned that lesson. This story is about a little boy named Eddie. He was mad at Jesus. He grabbed a crayon from his baby sister and she started crying. His mother went up to him, took the crayon away and said, “Eddie, Jesus wouldn’t treat his baby sister like that.”
Eddie went out into the backyard and kicked the dog. His father saw him do it and said, “Eddie, Jesus wouldn’t treat animals like that.”
Eddie went into his room and started playing with his toys. Pretty soon his mother came into his room and said, “It’s time to put the toys away. We’re leaving for church to learn about Jesus”. But Eddie said, “I’m not going. I’m mad at Jesus”.
That afternoon Eddie was in the backyard with his father, and his father said, “Eddie, I want to show you something,” and he pointed to a little, harmless ant. The ant was all by himself. He was going as fast as he could across a brick, but when he got to the end, he would turn around and go back. The lonely ant finally came to the edge of the brick and went up a blade of grass. Then he came back down the blade of grass. The ant ran as fast as he could, and then he came back to where he started. Eddie’s father asked him what he thought about the ant.
Eddie replied, “I think that ant is lost”. “And what do you think is going to happen to that ant?” said his father. “Well, I guess he’ll die, especially if I smash him”.
His father said, “I want to show you something else”, and he showed Eddie a little clearing in the garden where there was a tiny hole. Around the tiny hole were lines of busy ants going in the hole and coming out. The ants were running around, bumping heads, back and forth down the hole and out. “Eddie, what do you think?” said his father.
“Well, I think that when the sun goes down and it gets cold, all of these ants will go down in their home and they will be safe tonight”.
His father continued, “You know that looks a lot like church this morning with all of your friends and all of the people coming from different directions, coming into church where they could all be together and be safe.” His father stopped and walked back to the brick where the lone little ant had been and asked, “Now what do you think about this ant over here?”
Eddie went over and looked, but the ant was gone. While he was watching the ant came back up on the brick. Eddie bent down and let the ant walk up on his hand. Then he went over to where all the other ants were by the hole in the ground. He put the ant down on the ground and watched him get in line. Then he looked up at his father and smiled.
“Do you think Jesus would have done that?” Eddie asked? His father bent down and picked Eddie up. He gave him a big hug and said, “Yes, I think Jesus would have done just that”. And they said a prayer right there in the back yard.
Boys and girls, let’s bow our heads, close our eyes and have a moment of prayer.
Thank you Jesus for watching out for us and for teaching us to watch out for others. Give us the wisdom and the strength to help others as you help us. We ask this in Jesus’ name, AMEN
