Fear 4 Part 2 Christmas 6

Catch the first part of the story here

Dedicated to teacher, Jessica Bertrand, and her class at Grand Valley Christian High School.

The children are playing in the playground. The December day is unseasonably warm. The children don’t need jackets. They are excited because after play time is a party. It’s a Christmas party, with games and food. Next week is Christmas day and Christmas break starts at the end of today.

 

The bell rings for them to line up to go inside. They line up with anticipation. The teacher says, “I brought snacks in individual sacks for you. When we go in, I’ll get the box and you can take one. The color of the sacks are red, green, blue, and purple with the same snack inside each. Take one and find a place to sit either on the floor or at a table. On each table is a craft and on the floor are games stations. Choose a place to go to eat your fun snack while you play a game or do a craft. I expect you to rotate to each station. I will come around and explain each craft. Now, enter with decorum but try to have fun.” Smiling to the children she opens the door. Her charges file past smiling at her. They love their teacher and she loves them.

The teacher picks up the box of snack filled sacks and sets it on a nearby table so the children can pick a sack. They easily pick one and find a place to sit talking and laughing. She smiles as she walks over to the CD player and soon music fills the room.

She observes her students having a good time. This is a wonderful group of children. I am so blessed to be their teacher. Time flies when we are together. Sometimes there are surprises. I feel something in the air. Maybe it's the excitement radiating out of these small bodies of kinetic energy. I hope I planned enough to keep them occupied until they go home.

Their teacher stops at the closest table and quickly explains the craft and making sure they are equipped with enough to make the beaded ornaments. At the next table she shows them the stable she previously made out of Popsicle sticks. There a few questions she answers.

The following table is holding clay. She tells the children to form the nativity out of the clay. The clay figures will be used for the stable they will make. Instructions for baking the clay is in the take home papers.

 

Abundant supplies of frosting and things needed to decorate cookies previously baked are on the next table. Each child made two cookies yesterday. “Plastic gloves can be worn so fingers will not be licked and wet paper towels are in the plastic bag for quick cleanup.” She says with a wink.

At that moment, one of her children screams, “Aaah! What is that?”

“I think it’s a rat!” yells another.

Amid the chaos she declares, “Settle down!” A hush descends. She points toward the door and every child files out the door.

So this is the surprise I sensed earlier. Rodents creep me out. Hold yourself together. Don't let it show.

Outside the door she calmly says, “It’s probably a mouse. We left the door open to air out the classroom. The mouse or whatever slipped in. I think I saw where it went. I’m going to quietly enter. On my desk is a small box. I will use that to trap the animal. Then I’ll slide both to the door and we can free it.”

The teacher slips noiselessly into the classroom. She found her box and carefully picked it up. Out of the corner of her eye she catches the scurry of the little creature.  It's not a mouse, but a chipmunk! That's better. Awe he’s cute. Maybe we could… No, he needs his freedom. Stick to the plan.

As silent as possible but intrigued with the creature, she snuck up on him. She lifted the box ready to pounce on him, “There you are.” She missed by a fraction. Her trap didn’t work. The children are by the door waiting anxiously. She points to the door and out they go again.

Outside again she says, “It’s a chipmunk. He cleaned up all our dropped morsels of food. He’s about this big.” She used her thumb and middle finger on her right hand to show its size. “We need a better plan. I’ll still try the box maneuver, but maybe an open door will work. He may feel trapped. Therefore, I want everyone to stay away from the door. Don’t let the chipmunk hear you and get more frightened. We don’t want to hurt it. We want to let the poor thing loose. Is everyone alright and understand the plan?” Heads nod. “As soon as the chipmunk is under the box or I think it will leave on its own, I’ll signal.” She turns and rests her hand on one of the boy’s shoulder.s “Jimmy, you open the door wide. Alright?”

Jimmy stood taller. “I’m ready.”

She slips in again and readies herself and her box. I wonder which one of is more frightened? Me or the chipmunk? She thinks she knows where he is, if he hasn’t moved when she was outside. In the corner is a long stick she uses to pull down the maps on the wall. She crouched on all fours, with the box in her right hand and the long stick in her left, she reaches the stick and bangs it on the far side of the cabinet. Even though she is ready she hesitates when she his cute nose poke out. Down the box comes—too late.

“Now, Jimmy!”

She watches as the little creature swerves, hesitates, and takes a few more leaps. He does a strange thing. He looks back at her, blinks, and then like a shot is out the door.

“There he goes!”

“He is so cute!”

“I wish we could have kept him!”

“Look at him go!”

“He runs fast!”

“I wonder if he has a family.”

She listens to the children’s excitement. I knew something exciting was going to happen today.

She says, “Come in children and get back to your stations. We will need to move fast to get everything finished because school is over soon. What a cool story to tell your families.”

As the children work on their projects she says, “We can be thankful for our little visitor today. Perhaps he was a Christmas gift to us. The chipmunk must've been very frightened. I was. He gave us something to think about. Have you ever been afraid? Sometimes we could be afraid when there is nothing to be afraid of. We weren't trying to harm the chipmunk but he was terribly frightened. We meant to help him. He thought we were trying to harm him. We are giants to him and he didn't understand our intentions.

The Lord sometimes leads us through new events or circumstances that seem scary. He wants us to learn something and to grow stronger and closer to him. We need to trust the Lord to take us through the scary events. He does things like that for our good. We will grow best through adversity.

Next time something is frightening for you. Ask the Lord to help you. Ask Him to tell you what you need to learn. Sometimes the thing to learn is to trust Him. Our Chipmunk friend had an open door in front of him and he hesitated and looked back at me. I think he understood we were trying to help him and were letting him go. I doubt he will come back but you never know—I think he loved our candy covered popcorn.”

 

 

Boys and girls, do you go through frightening ordeals and trust the Lord to get you through them? I pray you do. It is a lesson every Christian needs to learn. Trust the Lord and ask Him what you need to learn from the experience. He will impress upon your mind and heart what He wants to tell you. You can hear Him best when you quietly listen.

 

Memorize: 2Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a strong mind.

 

Verses in NKJV unless otherwise stated