by Jim Payton
the sun. As I got closer, I saw a young boy aged about 10 or 11 years sitting on his heels. I squatted beside him. As we spoke, I learnt that his Mum had died of a serious sickness leaving him to look after four brothers and sisters. They lived a life balanced between life and death, with hunger, sickness and loneliness. He told me that when his Mum was alive she would cuddle him and care for him. She would make sure he had food and a safe place to sleep. He told me how very much he longed for her and how much he missed her. He said that she often told him off, but that he now knew she had done that for his own good. Because of those ‘telling-offs’, he told me, he had learnt some very important life lessons.
As he spoke, I thought of how selfish I had been as a child. Always I had wanted this and wanted that. Always it had been me, me and me. I realised Mum had been trying to point out life lessons to me but that I had not wanted to learn them. The tears in my eyes washed away the sweat. How much I must have hurt my Mum, but she never complained, just gave me a hug and a kiss and told me she loved me, and for me to be careful.
Mums, close to being the most important beings on this earth! How sad we often do not realise until it is too late. Go on, give your Mum a hug, and a kiss, and tell her you love her.
Story 18 The Day the Minister Scared Me
Do you read the Bible? Not many children do. Actually a lot of Mums and Dads do not read the Bible either. The Bible has many different books in it, written by many different people. One of those books is Psalms. It was in use before Jesus was even born. In Psalm 111, it says that ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’. That seemed funny to me because I thought the Lord was a loving person and I did not want to be scared. When I was young, I lived on a dairy farm and we did not get to church very often. We used to get our Sunday school lessons in the mail. One day though, I was at church and I was sitting up the front. In those days, the Ministers took the church services from the pulpit. The pulpit was a stand higher than the rest of the church seating. On this day, the Minister was standing in the pulpit and he was dressed all in black with a white collar turned around the wrong way. He opened up the Bible, looked down at it, and then leaned over the front of the pulpit and looked down at me. He said in a loud voice, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”. It sounded like the end of the world to me. I was scared.
The next day, I was over the back of our farm, and went into a little clearing I had found in the middle of many gorse bushes. Gorse is prickly and normally you keep away from it but I had found this little ‘secret’ place when I was looking for newly born calves, and would go there when I wanted to be alone and get away from my four sisters. Sitting on a fallen tree trunk in the clearing was a man. He was not a farmer. He did not look like Dad anyway.
“Hullo Jim,” he said.
“How do you know my name?” I asked.
“Oh I know lots of things,” he said. “I’ve been around for thousands of years.” He did not look that old to me. He did not even look as old as our Minister did.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “I am called many names. What does matter is what the Minister said to you in Church yesterday; the bit about fear.”
“I thought God was nice and loving,” I said. “I didn’t know you had to be scared of him.”
“You don’t,” said the man. “It’s just that sometimes adults use funny words and sometimes those words mean different things. Look, I’ll show you.” He held out his hand. I took hold of it and suddenly ‘zap’, we were no longer in the clearing. We were wearing funny clothes and while the people were speaking English, it was funny English. I could tell that we were in London, because I knew the street names. I later found out that is was about the year 1890. The man took me into a church. Lying open on the alter was a Bible. The man turned to Psalm 111 and there it was, ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’. Then ‘zap’ and we were back in New Zealand, but not in the clearing. It was about 1976, or so, and the man took me into another church and the Bible there was like the ones at our Church today. He showed me Psalm 111 and it said, ‘The way to become wise is to honour the Lord’. Then ‘zap’ again and the man took me into the house I now live in, although I did not know that at the time because it was in the future. He picked up a Bible and opened it again at Psalm 111 and it said, ‘Respect and obey the Lord, this is the first step to wisdom’. Then ‘zap’ and we were back in the clearing.
“Now,” he said. “That little journey shows you that the Bibles being used now will change and make more sense when you are grown up and have to tell Bible stories in church. Now, go and help milk the cows.” I turned to go and when I looked back, the man was not there, but I could hear him saying his last words and they were,‘Oh, and by the way, tell those children at your Church to sing as loud as they can’.
Now, wasn’t that strange. I think so. You had not even been born, and the building that is now your Church had not been built either when that man spoke to me. You know what I think? I think he was an angel, don’t you?
Now, when I read things in the Bible that I do not understand, I ask other people or read different Bibles until I do understand. So those words, ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’, do not mean that you should be scared. What they means is that if you want to be wise, and clever, then learn about God and do what he says. You know the Bible is full of good stories about what God says. Get Mum or Dad, or Nana or Pop, or Granny or Granddad to tell you some of them.
Story 19 Salt
Peter sat cross-legged on the floor listening to his Sunday school teacher. She was talking about things that Jesus had said. He heard her say Jesus had said that people needed to be like salt and to be like a light to the world. Afterwards, at home, Peter went to the kitchen cupboard and got the saltshaker. He shook some salt into his palm and licked it. It tasted a bit yucky. His Mum saw him and asked what he was doing. “I’m trying to be salt like Jesus said I should,” replied Peter. “But I don’t think I want to be salt. I don’t want to be that yucky.” Peter’s Mum laughed.
“Jesus didn’t mean it like that,” she said. “I’ll show you tomorrow morning.”
The next morning, for breakfast, Peter’s Mum made him porridge. “There you are,” she said putting a steaming plate in front of him. “That’ll warm your belly.” Peter took a mouthful and spat it straight out.
“Mum, that’s yucky!” he said.
“Well,” said his Mum. “Try this.” She put another plate in front of him and that tasted great.
“You see,” continued his Mum. “The second plate had salt in it and the first one didn’t. Jesus did not mean you have to turn yourself into salt. He meant you have to be like salt. Now a little bit of salt in the porridge made it yummy and that is what Jesus meant. He meant that if you are good then you will be able to change your friends and make them good as well.” So when you read that Christians are to be the salt of the earth it means that they are to be good, to tell the truth, to help others, and to always be happy so other people get to like Jesus. As salt in porridge makes it nice, you will make people nice.
Story 20 The Messiah
One day Jesus and his disciples were walking quietly along a long dusty road. They were tired and sat down for a few minutes under a tree in some shade. When they had settled Jesus suddenly said to them, “Who do people say I am?” The disciples looked at each other. You could just see them thinking things like; what sort of turkey is this guy?
“Ah,” said one of them, “They say you are Jesus.”
Another said, “I heard someone say the other day that you are John the Baptist come back to life because of the things you say.”
Yet another said, “Because of the miracles you have been doing some reckon you are Elijah come back to life.”
“Some say you are one of the prophets,” said another.
“I see,” said Jesus. “And who do you say I am?”
“You are the Messiah,” Peter
said immediately. A Messiah was the person the Jews believed would save them from the Romans who ruled over them. Jesus then told his disciples that people would not believe what he was telling them, that they would call him a liar and say he did not know what he was talking about. He told them he would die but that three days later he would come back to life. Peter did not like what he was hearing. He did not want to know a loser. He wanted Jesus to be a great warrior like Hercules, or the Power Rangers, or some one. Some one who could call out to God to zap people, some one who could help them pass exams, win races, make lots of money, and have many friends.
“Now hang on a minute mate,” said Peter. “What is all this about nobody knowing what you are talking about and putting you to death? That is not right. Tell me it is not. You are going to help us to be winners, to beat up those who do not like us. Get with the program please.”
“Poor, poor Peter,” said Jesus. “You are so wrong, so very, very wrong. You are thinking like a human. I am doing what God wants to me do. He wants me to show people how to reach him. That is who I am, the way to God. Follow me, do what I do and you will reach God.”
Therefore, when Jesus asked, “Who do you say that I am?” he was not just asking what his name