The group left New Mexico and entered Arizona. The Leader told the kids that they were going to stop at the Petrified Forest National Park. The kids were not sure what to expect at a petrified forest, but they were excited that they were going to see it! They were almost at the petrified forest when it happened…steam started billowing out of the hood of the Ugly Little Blue Bus!
The driver carefully pulled over to the side of the highway and said, “Oh no! What do we do now?” Just at that moment a pickup truck stopped behind the Ugly Little Blue Bus and a man got out of the truck and came up to the bus and carefully opened the hood. He told the Leader that the radiator had a hole in it and the whole radiator needed to be replaced. The man said that he owned a service garage in Winslow Arizona, and he would be happy to fix the Ugly Little Blue Bus. He would buy a radiator and install it in the bus and not charge them anything! He said he was a Christian and he wanted to serve the group traveling in the Ugly Little Blue Bus because they were Christians too! The man had some containers of coolant in his truck, and after the radiator cooled off, he put duct tape over the hole in the radiator and filled the radiator. They had to go slow, and they stopped several more times to put on more tape and add more coolant, but eventually they drove the 55 miles to Winslow and got to the man’s garage.
It would take two days to get the new radiator and install it, so the next morning the man went to the Leader of the group and said that he had a surprise for them! The man had a friend who was also a Christian, and he wanted to serve the group by taking them on a short trip along Route 66. The friend had two buses, and they could choose which bus they would borrow for the two days!
The first bus was an old blue school bus. It was 16 years older than the Ugly Little Blue Bus!
The second bus was an old yellow highway coach.
The Leader looked at the two buses and made a choice! He said, “The old yellow highway coach has air conditioning! I choose that bus! All the kids cheered! They could hardly wait to travel in an air-conditioned bus!
The fuel tank on the old yellow highway coach needed to be filled, so the driver told the leaders and the kids to stand at the corner and wait for the coach to pick them up. They were standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona!
There was a statue on that corner called, ‘Standing on a Corner in Winslow Arizona’, but the kids did not have time to pay attention to the statue because their coach was coming down the street!
They all got into the old yellow highway coach, and they were off on an adventure, they did not know where they were going, but they could hardly wait to see something else along Route 66!
They traveled for about ½ hour and then they could not believe what they saw! It was a huge crater, just like the pictures they had seen of the craters on the moon!
This crater was formed when a meteor crashed to the earth many years ago. The crater is almost ¾ across and 560 feet deep (approximately the height of a building that is 56 stories tall). The group could not go down into the crater because it is privately owned, but they enjoyed the view from the top!
There was another group of people there, and in that group was a man who was very upset. He was almost crying and saying ‘This could happen again! No one is safe! A meteor could wipe out a city and kill everyone! I’m never going to feel safe again!’ The kids got kind of scared listening to him.
That night around the campfire the Leader talked to the kids about that scared man they saw at the meteor crater. The Leader told the kids that they never had to have that kind of fear because Christians have Jesus in their lives. Jesus has promised to go with us through every challenge that we have in this life on earth.
In the Bible Jesus says in Matthew 28:20b
And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
In the Bible it says in Psalms 23:4
Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for You are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.
In Romans 8:31 it says:
What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?”
In Romans 8:35,37-39 it says:
Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean He no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?
No, despite all these thing, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow – not even the powers of hell can separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Christians have Jesus living in their heart and do not have to worry about what is coming in life. No matter what happens, Jesus is with us, and He is in control and will help us every step of the way. Jesus does this because He loves us so much!
In this season of Thanksgiving, we often are thankful for our parents, friends, and the things that we have. We should be thankful for these things, but too often we forget to be thankful for God in our life! Every good thing in our life comes from God, He loves us so much!
In the Bible in James 1:17 it says:
Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens.
God who made all the awesome things in the universe, loves us so much that He gives us good things, even when life is not going the way we hoped that it would.
The Leader told the kids to put their hand on their hearts and feel their heartbeat. The Leader said, “God loves you so much that even though He keeps the whole universe running, He still takes time to keep your heart beating and He gives you air to breathe.
Give thanks to God for who He is and for all the good things that He does for us each and every day!