by Jim Payton
hate school,” said Sally. “All the kids make fun of me.”
“Why?” asked the worm.
“Because I’ve got three spots on my wings,” said Sally.
“So what?” asked the worm.
“Well,” said Sally. “It means that I don’t belong. I don’t think I am really a butterfly. I’m different.”
“Have you got wings?” asked the worm.
“Yes, of course,” replied Sally.
“Can you fly?” asked the worm.
“Of course,” replied Sally.
“Do you eat cabbage leaves?” asked the worm.
“Yes,” admitted Sally.
“Well it seems to me that you are a white butterfly,” responded the worm. “I think the third spot makes you look extra lovely.”
“Do you think so?” asked Sally now a little bit happier.
“I sure do,” stated the worm. “You belong with all the other butterflies. You may be a bit different, but that does not mean you do not belong. Go home.”
Sally, feeling much brighter, flew to her home at number 4 Cabbage Row. Her Mum and Dad were so happy to see her. The school headmaster had telephoned to say she was not at school and everyone had been so worried.
“Oh Mum I’ve been so silly,” said Sally. “I thought I didn’t belong, but a worm I spoke with showed me how silly I was. Although I am a bit different, I still belong to the butterfly family. Not only do I belong to the butterfly family, but I belong to God’s world, and God loves me no matter how many spots I have.”
And, that is the same with us all. Even when we are called names, it does not matter, because God loves us. Thank you God!
Story 4 Humpty Dumpty
Hi. My name is Kurl. I am a horse. When you see me searching for food in my paddock you probably do not take much notice of me. Well, why should you? Well you should, because I come from a long line of horses that date back to Roman times. The other day my Mistress was walking me around the park. One particular house had a barking dog. On one of our circuits, for some reason, it did not bark, and I could hear a man talking on a telephone about Humpty Dumpty. He said that in the nursery rhyme all the Kings Horses and all the Kings men could not put Humpty together again. He must have been a Pastor or Minister because he said that God could have put Humpty together again just as he puts people back together. When I heard Jesus mentioned, I remembered what my Mum had told me some years ago. It seems that when Jesus was alive, one of my ancestors, a horse named Rex, belonged to a Roman Centurion. A Centurion was a Roman soldier in charge of 100 other soldiers. This one was in Palestine, and the date was about 30 AD, or CE as they say now. Life was very busy for Rex’s owner because most of the people living in Palestine were Jews, and they did not like the Romans. The Romans often had to stop the Jews fighting them, and fighting amongst themselves. One person causing a lot of worry to the Jewish leaders was a man called Jesus. He had a group of people who were close friends of his, and they spent their time travelling throughout Palestine and preaching to, and healing, people. He did not bother the Romans much, but he did upset the Jews. Jews who were friendly with the Romans had a cool life, but Jesus did not like the way they acted. He believed they did things all wrong. Jesus did not like the way they thought they were better than others. Jesus wanted everyone to love each other, be friends, and not hate anyone. He said that those who thought themselves important would not be important to God. The Pharisees did not like that one bit. They stirred up trouble and got the Romans to arrest Jesus. Rex’s Centurion owner went to do the job. They went to an olive grove at Gethsemane. There were a group of people there, but no one knew who Jesus was because all Jews looked the same to Romans. The Jewish authorities had one of Jesus’ friends working for them, and he showed them Jesus. Upon Jesus’ arrest, one of his friends drew his sword and cut off a soldier’s ear. There was blood everywhere. It was quite scary for a moment. Jesus told his friends not to fight but instead of staying to help Jesus, they all ran away. Jesus then healed the soldier’s ear. One moment he had no ear and then next, Jesus had reattached it. The only thing to show anything had happened was the blood on the soldier’s clothing. Straight away all the soldiers, and the Jews who had gone with them to make sure Jesus was arrested, knew that there was something special about Jesus. He was so calm about it all. Rex, and his Centurion owner, then took the arrested Jesus to the Jews High Priest, Caiaphas. Caiaphas questioned Jesus for some time and then sent him to the Jewish Tribunal. The Tribunal members were Jews known as the Sanhedrin. Jesus was questioned some more. The Sanhedrin wanted to have Jesus killed, but because they were not legally able to do it themselves, they sent him to the local boss of the Romans, Pontius Pilate. Pilate questioned Jesus and then sent him to Herod who wanted to speak with him. After questioning him, Herod returned Jesus to Pilate. Pilate then told the Jews that he could not find anything that Jesus had done wrong. After a bit of confusion Pilate sentenced Jesus to death. He did that because he was scared of upsetting the Jewish leaders and causing trouble. Rex’s Centurion owner then took Jesus to a place called Golgotha and nailed him to a cross between two baddies. When Jesus died, things got freaky. The sun disappeared, there was thunder and lightening and a huge earthquake. It was scary. Straight away, Rex’s owner, and many of his men, became Christians. That was not the end of the story though. No way was the end. It actually turned out to be the beginning. Some friends of Jesus took his body away and put it into a tomb for safety. (A tomb is a burial place, a bit like a grave). They placed a big stone across the entrance to the tomb. Some guards were nearby to make sure nobody pinched the body. A friend of Rex’s owner was the person in charge of the guards. While the Guards were at the tomb there was another earthquake, and then a man dressed all in white, and shining as bright as the sun, appeared out of nowhere and rolled away the stone that had been across the front of it. It had taken several men to place it there, but this one person easily rolled it away. The guards did not realise the man was an angel. They ran away because they were scared. As they ran, one of them looked back and saw the man in white talking to Jesus who was alive again. I reckon it was just like that Pastor said; God had put Jesus back together again because he can do the impossible and could have even put broken Humpty Dumpty together again.
Even today, when nobody loves us, or cares for us, or says things about us, and we are all broken up inside because of it, God can fix us through Jesus, his Son. With his love for us, and his care, we can come back to a good life when all seems to be sad and bad, and we can be whole again. Yep, I reckon I am famous in my own way, but I have learnt to be modest and stay quiet and humble in my paddock waiting for my Mistress to come and see me.
Story 5 A Ghost Story
Do you remember Kurl? Her ancestors had seen Jesus killed and then come back to life again. The story does not end there. Oh dear me no. That was only the beginning. Once Jesus left the tomb, he travelled to see all his friends and disciples. He showed them he was actually real and not a ghost. He let them touch him to make sure he was alive. He then said that he was going to leave them and go to heaven to be with his father, God. That made his disciples and friends very sad because he had just come back from being dead.
“Don’t be sad,” said Jesus. “I will be coming back again. While I am away, I will send the Holy Spirit to look after you. It will tell you what you should be doing. It will be like having God and Me inside you. You will be able to heal people and do other miracles.”
Then a cloud came and covered Jesus and it took him away to heaven. The disciples were excited at this stage because they knew something great was going to happen because Jesus had said it would.
One-day Jesus’ Disciples, and friends, were all together for the day of Pentecost. It was a holiday when the Jewish people celebrated the first harvest of new fruit. They heard a loud sound like rushing wind. It was loud, but nothing moved as it would in a wind. Nothing like that had happened before. Flames of fire seemed to touch the heads of the people there. It
did not set their hair on fire so it could not have been normal fire. Once the flames touched them, the people got an excited feeling inside themselves. Then they found that they could speak in languages that they did not know. Normally they mostly spoke Hebrew, but suddenly some could speak Greek, some Egyptian, and many other languages. If it happened like that here, now, those of us who speak only English would suddenly be able to speak Maori, Samoan, Japanese, Mexican, Taiwanese, French and other languages. That would be exciting. Think of all the extra friends we would suddenly have. Not only that, we would be able to tell them all about our Sunday school times wouldn’t we? They were also excited because they were able to heal sick people and do other special things. They liked what was happening so much; they decided to spend as much time together as they could. They put all their money together and shared their food. They sang hymns and read the Holy books together. They became a big family like we are at our Church.
So how do you get the Holy Spirit to come and live inside you? Well you say your prayers every day, go to Sunday school as often as you can, and above all, you love your Mum and Dad and your brothers and sisters. You do not say or do