WHAT HAPPENED TO THE GOLDFISH?
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Come with me to a third
grade classroom..... There is a nine-year-old kid sitting at his desk and all
of a sudden, there is a puddle between his feet and the front of his pants
are wet. He thinks his heart is going to stop because he cannot possibly imagine
how this has happened. It's never happened before, and he knows that when the
boys find out he will never hear the end of it. When the girls find out, they'll never
speak to him again as long as he lives. The boy believes his heart is going
to stop; he puts his head down and prays this prayer, "Dear God, this is
an emergency! I need help now! Five minutes from now I'm dead meat. "He looks up from his prayer and here
comes the teacher with a look in her eyes that says he has been discovered. As the teacher is walking
toward him, a classmate named Susie is carrying a goldfish bowl that is
filled with water. Susie trips in front of the teacher and inexplicably dumps
the bowl of water in the boy's lap. The boy pretends to be angry, but all the
while is saying to himself, "Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord!" Now
all of a sudden, instead of being the object of ridicule, the boy is the
object of sympathy. The teacher rushes him downstairs and gives him gym
shorts to put on while his pants dry out. All the other children are on their
hands and knees cleaning up around his desk.
The sympathy is wonderful. But as life would have it, the ridicule
that should have been his has been transferred to someone else - Susie. She
tries to help, but they tell her to get out. You've done enough, you
klutz!" Finally, at the end of the day, as they are waiting for the bus,
the boy walks over to Susie and whispers, "You did that on purpose,
didn't you?" Susie whispers back, "I wet my pants once too." May God help us see the
opportunities that are always around us to do good. Remember.....Just going to church doesn't
make you a Christian any more than standing in your garage makes you a car.
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