One afternoon the Leader stopped the Ugly Little Blue Bus by a big river, it was the Mississippi river! They all got off the bus and the Leader led them to a bridge and told them that they were going to walk across the bridge and walk back again. It was hot and the bridge was long. It was not even straight, part-way across the bridge curved! Halfway across they stopped and took some selfies with the river in the background.
Some of the kids noticed that just downstream from the bridge there were some shadowy shapes just below the surface of the water, they looked like they might have been rocks. They also noticed a couple of old stone buildings almost in the middle of the river.
After walking a long time, they finally got to the other side of the of the bridge. The Leader took them to a shady place, and they all collapsed on the ground.
The Leader welcomed them to Missouri! They had just walked from Illinois into Missouri. While they were resting, the Leader told them a little about the bridge they had just walked across:
- The bridge is a mile long and connects Illinois and Missouri.
- It was built in 1929, it is almost 100 years old.
- It was part of Route 66, but it is too narrow to be used as a highway anymore, so it is a walking & biking bridge now.
- The two stone buildings out in the river are pumping stations for the local water supply.
- The bridge is named for a ‘chain of rocks’ in the river. The 17-mile-long chain of dangerous rocks made shipping very dangerous. A canal was dug so that barges and boats could bypass the rocks. Later the level of the river was raised so that barges and boats could go safely over the rocks. Today the rocks can only be seen when the river water is very low.
- The bridge has a 30-degree bend in it because riverboat captains wanted the bridge supports to line up with the two pumping stations so that it would be easier to navigate barges through the area.
After they had rested, they had to walk all the way back across the bridge to get back to the Ugly Little Blue Bus. While they were resting after that long walk, the Leader finished his talk about the bridge. The Leader then told the kids that the bridge could help them learn more about God.
- Our sins separate us from God just like the river separates Illinois from Missouri.
- Just like the Chain of Rocks made it impossible to safely navigate the river, our sins make it impossible for us to cross over to God and please Him.
- The Chain of Rocks Bridge was built to take people safely over the river and over the rocks from Illinois to Missouri. In the same way, Jesus is the bridge that makes it possible for our sins to be forgiven and makes it possible for us to cross-over to God’s side.
In the Bible in John 14:6 it says:
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
In the Bible in Acts 4:12 it says:
Salvation is found in on one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.
In the Bible in John 3:16 it says:
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
In the Bible in John 3:36 it says:
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.