Professor Ooops, Shane and Shelly were on the bicycle/time machine trying to get away from one army that was chasing (and killing) another army! Shelly had turned the crank on the time machine but nothing had happened when they started riding! Shelly screamed, “What do we do now?” The Professor said, “Ooops!” Shane said, “Pedal faster, they’re gaining on us!” It wasn’t easy to pedal faster because they were going up hill. Just when a soldier behind them was about to cut off Shelly’s head with his sword, they got over the top of the hill! They began to go faster, and the Professor shifted the bicycle into high gear. Then it happened…The bicycle began bouncing like a toad in a washing machine! There was a blinding flash of light and a loud noise like a turtle singing! Suddenly they were not on the hill anymore, the soldiers were gone, the green grass was gone, and the sunshine was gone!
It was completely dark! The bicycle went over a bunch of big bumps, one right after the other. The Professor, Shane and Shelly went flying off the bike. The Professor said, “Ooops!” They expected to land on hard ground or even stone, and they thought this would be the end of them! But they landed on something soft and kind of squishy! In the complete darkness, it took them a few minutes to find each other and make sure they were alright! Shane asked, “Where do you suppose that we are?” Shelly answered, “Maybe it is some kind of cave, it’s so dark and everything is kind of wet.” The Professor answered, “Why is the ground so soft? And what is that noise?” They hadn’t noticed the noise until now, but there was a steady pounding noise, the whole place seemed to vibrate with the noise! Shelly said, “Maybe this isn’t a cave, maybe we are in a marsh or a bog and it is the middle of the night with no moon or star.” But even she couldn’t figure out what was making that pounding noise!
Since they couldn’t see anything, they sat down on the wet, squishy ground and spent the time whispering together. They talked about their last adventure, Shane had figured out that somehow the time machine had worked and that they had somehow gotten into the middle of the David and Goliath story in the Bible. They agreed that it was really cool that they had actually gotten to see it all happen. They couldn’t believe how big Goliath really had been! Shelly had even figured out how the bicycle/time machine worked. She said, “You have to turn the crank first, but it doesn’t actually work until we are riding fast enough to shift into high gear.” That made sense to the rest of them. After awhile they ran out of thing to talk about, so they just sat there listening to the steady pounding noise and trying to figure out where they were.
They were almost asleep when they suddenly heard a new noise! It sounded like some kind of animal crying or howling! It was hard to hear clearly because of the pounding noise. Shelly said, “We are not alone here, there is something else here, and it doesn’t sound too far away!” The Professor said, “Ooops!” They decided to try to get a little closer and figure out what was making that noise. They stood up (or tried to), but Shelly slipped and fell down! As she was falling, her foot hit Shane’s leg, and he fell too! As Shane was falling, the Professor tried to catch him, but the Professor fell too! So there they were! All three of them in a heap with Shelly on the bottom of the pile! The Professor said, “Ooops!” Shelly said, “Get off me, my nose is shoved right into this soft ground, and it stinks like a dead fish has been lying here!” They all got up and began going quietly toward the noise. When they had gone just a little ways, the noise changed from howling and began using words! The voice said, “God help me! I’m almost dead! There was water all around me, the waters of the sea closed around my throat, the deep sea was all around me. I went down to where the mountains of the sea start to rise, I thought I was locked in this prison forever.”
That voice was scary! The Professor, Shane and Shelly didn’t wait to hear more. They went back to where they had left the bicycle and sat down. They stayed close together because they were so afraid! Shane asked, “Who is that guy? He sounds crazy! He was talking like he was in a prison at the bottom of the sea. How could anyone be in a prison at the bottom of the sea?” Shelly said, “I just got an idea about where we are!” Before she could say what her idea was, something dreadful happened! The floor under them moved! It had been level before, but now it was tilted steeply up! They had to dig their fingernails into the floor to keep from sliding back towards that crazy man! That wasn’t the worst of it! The pounding noise began to get faster and very much louder! Shane yelled, “Oww! My ears are popping really bad, just like going up in a fast elevator!” Shelly yelled back to him, “Yes, we are going up! That’s what I was trying to tell you! I think we are in the Bible story of Jonah! That man is Jonah and he has been in here 3 days, that’s why he sounds crazy!” Shane said, “You mean we are in the big fish with Jonah? I guess that would explain why it is so dark, and the why the ground is soft, squishy, wet, and smells like fish!” The Professor added, “The bumps we went over when we got here must have been the fish’s ribs, and that pounding noise must be the fish’s heart beating.” “Yes,” said Shelly, “And the heart is beating faster and louder now because God has heard Jonah’s prayer and the fish is headed up to spit Jonah onto dry ground! Jonah has not paid attention to what God told him, and now he is in trouble because of it!”
The Professor yelled, “Let’s get out of here before this fish spits us out!” They jumped onto the bicycle, Shelly turned the crank and they began to pedal. They were trying to build up speed, but they were going uphill and couldn’t go fast enough to shift into high gear! Then it happened…The big fish jumped clear out of the water and opened his mouth! The Professor, Shane, and Shelly came out of the fish on their bicycle and went flying through the air! Right behind them was Jonah! The Professor said, “Ooops”, and then…
Application:
Read the story of Jonah in the Bible, you can read it in the Book of Jonah chapters 1 &2.
Jonah’s troubles came to him because he didn’t pay attention to God. God had a specific job to Jonah to do, he was supposed to go to the city of Nineveh and tell them about God. Jonah ignored God’s direction and tried to do things his own way. Jonah ended up being thrown into the sea to drown and then being swallowed by a big fish! Jonah had to spend 3 days in the fish before he decided to do things God’s way!
Ecclesiastes (in the Bible) chapter 12 verse 1 says, “Remember you Creator in the days of your youth…”
Why is it so important to pay attention to God while you are young?
- No one knows how much time they have left in this life (Jesus could come back at any time, or their life could be cut short by sickness or an accident)
- Following God is the best way to travel through this life. Christians don’t have a trouble-free life, but a Christian has Jesus in their life, and He promises to never leave.
- The best time to begin following Jesus is when you are young, the older a person gets, the harder it is to break the bad habits they have formed and make the decision to follow Jesus.