Tomorrow’s Hope #Covid-19 #faith #children

“I was just thinking about a friend of ours.” Bethany looks at her lion friend.

“Who is that Bethany?”

“Her name is Christine. Several of her children have attended our class.”

“Oh yes I remember her. The last time I saw her she was very sad.”

“Many of her tribe didn’t want the baby in the village; they said the baby was cursed.

A tear falls from Judah’s eye. “How can a baby be a curse?”

“It is our fallen world Judah.” Bethany holds his paw. “Broken people have little hope.”

“But there was one who came to give hope to the broken. His light breaks through darkness.The Gospel of John talks about light: “A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light lest the darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going.” John 12:35

“Judah, We need some of that light during Co-Vid pandemic. There are some families who have lost many people to the disease. ”

We can’t be afraid though: “Say to those who are fearful-hearted, Be strong, do not fear! Behold your God will come with a vengeance.” Isaiah 35:4

“No, Judah, you are right we must hold fast to Jesus, because our Tomorrow is filled with eternal hope. ”

 

So many of us are dealing with uncertainty. Are you afraid? Ask God to help you be strong. The Bible says God will come and be with you in your dark and fearful times.

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Rebirth #easter #love #sacrifice

It was a chrysalis; a pod that holds a baby butterfly. I looked up in the tree above.

“You fell didn’t you? How can I get you back?” There was no answer, no help.

I carried the chrysalis to my cave and put it in a very safe place. “What should I do with you? Should I bury you? I can’t.”

For 3 days Judah paced and mumbled in his cave. He couldn’t eat because he was sad about the small creature who had died.

Then on day 3, he heard a tiny voice. “Hello.” Is anyone there?”

“Hello” I saw the pod changing colour and I was afraid. “How can I help?” I said rather loudly.

“I must be hanging from something or I cannot come out the right way.”

I looked around in my cave. Then I grabbed the stub where the chrysalis had been attached to the tree. I let it hang down between my teeth. “Okay.”

I spent many hours as my wings little by little came out of the pod. When my eyes popped open, I saw something large and sharp. “What are those?” I tried to sound calm.

“My teeth.”

“What do you use them for?”

“Eating.”

“Like small creatures?”

“I eat many things.”

“Um, Mr Lion can you put me back where I came from.”

“The tree was too high. I can’t do it.”

I was too tired to argue. Maybe he would give me time to fly away. It was not easy, but I kept unfolding and drying my wet wings. I finally climbed on his big nose. I waved a wing at his eyes. “Hello, I’m Bethany. Can we be friends?”

“Oh yes. You are so beautiful. I would like to be friends very much.”

“Do lions eat their friends?”

“Never.”

***

“My God my God why have You forsaken me?” Mark 15:34

Many of us feel forsaken during these days of CoVid 19. God has not closed His eyes to our suffering. He’s right there.

Jesus died on the cross for our sins. His heart broke because our sins separated Him from the love of God  (for those 3 days.) Why would he do that? Because He loved us and wanted to free us. Judah the lion didn’t save the cocoon to then eat the butterfly. Jesus didn’t die for ours sins to then condemn us to eternal hell.

No one expected that in three days he would rise from the dead.  He is very much alive and we can be redeemed because sin has no hold on us in Christ. Just like Bethany the beautiful butterfly was reborn so can we be reborn in Jesus.

“He is not here; for He is risen, as He said.” Matthew 28:6

So rejoice-  Easter is the promise that death could not hold Jesus. It cannot hold us either.

 

 

“And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, (nor CoVid19) neither angels nor demons,^[b]neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. ³⁹ No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” ~Romans 8:38 & 39

 

Be suspended in the rays of Easter’s hope. Be loved by the one who died on the cross for YOU!!!

 

 

A Dark Day #goodfriday #bethanyandjudah

 

I am Bethany. In the Uganda village I am called  la fofo (is that the right way to say it Lawrence?) Judah was a very lonely lion. All of his pride (that’s a family of lions) had gone looking for water. They must have forgotten to tell Judah where they were going.

Judah wanted a friend, but all the animals would swiftly run away in fear.

Judah was out one morning on his regular walk when he found a most unusual thing. Judah you must tell this part.

“A hmm. I found something that looked like a package or a big seed. It looked dead and that made me sad. I could tell it had fallen from the tree above me. Then a voice whispered in the breeze “take it with you.” It’s hard to argue with the wind. I carried the dead seed back to my cave and set it in a safe place.

Each time I walked past the seed I said, “I will remember you as you should have been – alive and beautiful.”

“That reminds me, this is Bethany again, We are celebrating a day that was the saddest day in history. It is the day that God’s son Jesus gave his life as a ransom (that means payment) for my sin and your sin. The ground shook on that day. The sky was very dark. All of nature mourned his death. They placed his dead body in a tomb and rolled a big stone in front. There was no hope on his friend’s faces. Their master and teacher was gone.”

“How would you feel if you had been there?”

“I would have roared very loud with sorrow and then I would have laid down in front of the tomb to protect it. ”

“I think I would have tried to sing a song to him but it would have been through big tears.”

“As many of us spend some time today thinking about Jesus dying for us, please pray for people who are also suffering (many dying) from this Corona Virus. I have had many friends who have gotten sick and they are not feeling better yet.”

 

“Dear Jesus thank you for loving us so much that you died for our sins. There is nothing we can do but ask for you to forgive us and clean us up from our unrighteousness. What you did on the cross was the greatest gift anyone could ever receive. ”

 

We will be back on Easter day to finish the story about Bethany’s rebirth.

 

This is a continuation of a story that we told (with the Ugandan children helping) about a lion named Judah and his friend a butterfly named Bethany.

 

We wish you God’s grace on this day of remembrance.

 

 

If you were… #children #fiction

If you were a butterfly would you be friends with a lion???

I didn’t think so.

Personally,I wouldn’t either.  We know a lion who saved a butterfly while she was still in her chrysalis and she saw something about him that others didn’t.

Now this butterfly and (domesticated) lion go about the villages of Uganda teaching children.

If you listen closely, you might hear Judah roar. Don’t be afraid it is the only way a lion knows how to laugh.

Join us (Sean and Leslie) in 2019 as we write the story of the world where giraffes and orabi graze and children dance and sing in the village schools of Uganda.