Haley sat in a Church on Saturday evening. It was not the Church that she usually attended. A big Church in a city about an hour from the farm was having a dinner/theater, so she and Joe went to that.
The food was very good, and Haley was very careful not to spill any of her food during the meal. Joe was so proud of her and began to relax and enjoy the evening when it happened! Haley got out of her chair to go wash her hands, and the servers were coming out of the kitchen with the desserts. Haley tripped over a table leg and ran into the first server, he lost his balance and fell against another server, that that server fell into another server! Seven servers fell, and plates of dessert went flying! The dessert was cake and ice cream. A huge blob of ice cream landed on Joe, but he was so used to Haley’s accidents that he just calmly ate the ice cream! One of the servers had been carrying a large jar of chocolate syrup for the ice cream, and all that chocolate syrup landed on a woman who happened to be wearing a white dress!
After everything calmed down, they all went into the auditorium to watch the play. They announced that the play was about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins.
Haley was excited to see the wonderful story of Jesus in the play, and she could hardly wait for it to start! While she was waiting for the play to begin she thought about all the excitement she had had that day. It had been a beautiful spring day! It was warm and sunny and Daniel, her pet raccoon, was fully awake after his long winter sleep! The first couple of days after he had climbed down out of his hollow tree, he had seemed only half awake and hungry all the time. It seemed like he would never quit eating, but now his appetite was back to normal and today he had seemed fully awake and was ready to have fun! She had played with him in the yard outside the farmhouse. First, she chased him around the yard, and then he chased her for a while. She could not believe how fast he was! He sure had changed a lot since the day when she and Joe had rescued him when he was just a baby!
Suddenly Daniel made a frightened sound and ran to the nearest tree and scrambled up the tree! Haley heard a noise behind her and spun around to see what made the noise! It was a dog! Haley recognized the dog immediately; he lived down the road and he was a mean dog! He had never actually bitten anyone, but he always growled and snapped at Haley, and she was afraid of him! Haley was mad at Daniel because he had run up the tree and left her to face the danger by herself! Haley wanted to run into the house, but the dog was between her and the door. Haley watched the dog carefully and inched her way closer to the door. Then she felt her foot run into something! She glanced down and saw that her foot had bumped into the garden hose. Just that morning she had brought the hose out of the barn and hooked it up. Haley had an idea! She carefully bent down and turned the handle that let water into the hose. She never took her eyes off that dog for one second! When the hose was full of water, Haley took hold of the nozzle and slowly stood back up. The dog had no idea of what was about to happen to him! Suddenly, without warning, Haley began screaming as loud as she could and pushed the lever on the nozzle as hard as she could and began running straight at that dog! The dog got hit right in the face by that stream of cold water, and this crazy girl was screaming and running right at him with the hose! The dog turned around and began to run! He did not stop running until he had run more than a mile down the road back to the farm where he lived. Then he went and hid under the porch! He was out of breath and cold water was dripping off him and he was more frightened than he had ever been before, he would not go back to Joe and Haley’s farm ever again!
After the dog had run away, Haley turned off the hose and then Daniel came down out of the tree. He looked embarrassed because he had gone up the tree when danger came and left Haley by herself. Haley teased Daniel about being a coward and laughed at him. Daniel knew she was making fun of him, and he felt bad. Haley remembered the look on his face, and she laughed out loud, right in Church! The people sitting by her looked at her as if she were crazy, but Haley could not explain to them why she had started laughing because right at that moment, the play began.
The play was done extremely well, Haley could see how much Jesus loved us and how much pain he endured so that we could be saved. When they showed Jesus being whipped, it looked and sounded so real that Haley began to cry! Her tears increased when the soldier’s pushed the crown of thorns onto his head and the blood began to run down over Jesus’ face. The most intense part of the play started when they nailed Jesus to the cross! Haley could almost imagine how much pain those nails would have caused, and she buried her face in her hands and cried harder! Then came the awful moment when the Father in heaven had to turn his back on Jesus because all the sins from the whole world were on Jesus and the Father could not even look at His Son!
At the end of the play, the people sat in silence with tears streaming down their faces! The pastor got up and reminded the people that Jesus went through all of this because all people were sinners and were lost with no way of getting to heaven. God did not abandon us when we were in trouble but sent his Son Jesus to die for our sins to save us. The pastor told the people, “Even if you were the only person on earth, Jesus still would have come down here and died to pay for your sins! He loves you that much!”
Haley remembered her time with Daniel earlier in the day. She remembered how it felt when danger threatened her and Daniel ran away and left her! God is just the opposite of that, when humans were threatened by the consequences of sin, God did not run away and leave us! He sent His Son Jesus to save us! Haley started crying again because she realized how much God loved her!
Then the pastor got the attention of the people and said, “The story does not end with the death of Jesus! The best is yet to come!” All the lights in the Church suddenly went dark and then there was a faint light off to one side, like it was early morning and the sun was about to come up. The stone was moved from the front of Jesus’ tomb by angels and the soldier’s fainted and fell down! Light burst out from the tomb, and it was empty! Jesus was not there! He had risen from the dead! All believers in Jesus do not need to fear death because the moment our life on this earth ends, we are with Jesus in heaven. That’s when the good times begin and last forever with God!
Application:
The story of the death of Jesus to pay for our sins, and His rising from the dead three days later is the greatest moment in history! The story never gets old, but sometimes we have heard it so often that we do not take time to think about how much Jesus loves us! Like Haley did during the play, take some time to imagine how much pain Jesus went through when they put Him to death on the cross! Jesus loves you so much!
In the Bible in John 15:13 it says:
There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
Also in the Bible in Ephesians 5:2 it says:
Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered Himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God!
Like the pastor said at the end of the play; remember that even if you were the only person on earth, Jesus would have still come and died for your sins so that you could be forgiven. He loves you that much.
If you have never asked Jesus to come into your life and accepted His forgiveness, please talk to Him, and do that today! He loves you!