The next day Joe, Haley, and all the kids arrived early at the river. Their two rafts and Joe’s kayak were ready to be launched. Joe gave the kids some long poles and some paddles. The kids would use the paddles when the rafts were in deep water and use the poles to push the raft along when they were in shallow water. They pushed the two rafts into the river and then the boys got on the boy’s raft, the girls got on the girl’s raft, and Joe got in his kayak, and they were off!
At first the river was wide and shallow, and this was a good thing because the kids needed to get used to steering and moving their rafts! There was trouble when the rafts went around the first curve in the river! The girl’s raft bumped into the boy’s raft! Immediately the boys began shouting at the girls and calling them names and making fun of them because they did not steer their raft very good. While the boys were making fun of the girls, they were not paying attention to where they were going, and they ran into tree branches that were hanging over the river. All the boys were scrambling to get out of the way of those branches, and two of the boys fell into the river! Now it was the girls’ turn to laugh and make fun of the boys!
Joe watched all this from his kayak, and he calmly told the kids to be kind and quit making fun of each other, and then he gave them advice on how to get the rafts away from each other and away from the shore. Things were better for a while, and the only problems that they had were that some of the kids dropped their poles. Each time Joe paddled over to where the dropped pole was floating on the water, and he took the pole back to the person who had dropped it.
The river started to get deeper, and Joe told the kids that it was time to put down the poles and to start using the paddles. All the kids carefully laid their poles on the rafts except for Haley! Haley thought that she could still use her pole because she was bigger than the other kids. Haley pushed her pole deep in the water and pushed when she felt the pole touch the bottom of the river. Then there was trouble! The bottom of the river was soft mud and her pole stuck in the bottom of the river! Haley did not let go of her pole in time, and she was pulled off the raft and left in the middle of the river hanging onto her pole! The other kids laughed at Haley, and one of the kids said that she looked just like the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz when he got stuck in the middle of a river! Then the kids started arguing about this, most of the kids said that the scarecrow never got stuck in a river in the movie, but those that had read the book said that in the book he had gotten stuck on a pole in the middle of a river, and had to be rescued by a stork, but this was left out of the movie!
Meanwhile, the rafts had continued drifting down the river and they left Haley behind them stuck on that pole! Joe paddled back to Haley to help her. Haley was terrified, and looked at Joe and said, “Please get me down from here!” Joe told her that it was easy to get down, all she had to do was to let go and fall into the river! Haley did this and landed in the river with a big splash! Immediately she swam to Joe’s kayak and tried to climb onto it! Joe used his paddle and pushed her away! Haley said, “Are you trying to drown me?” Joe answered, “I am not trying to drown you, but if you try to climb onto this kayak, you will tip it over, and then we will both be in the water and will have a hard time catching up with the rafts. Grab onto the rope tied to the back of my kayak, and I will pull you to the raft!
Haley grabbed onto the rope and Joe began to paddle. Joe had very strong arms because he had to use crutches all the time since his legs were crippled. Joe paddled fast, and in just a couple of minutes they had caught up to the girl’s raft. Haley let go of the rope and tried to climb onto the raft! The raft tipped toward Haley, and two other girls slid into the water! Joe told the rest of the girls to paddle the raft closer to shore, into shallow water, and then Haley and the other two girls could get back on the raft! While they were doing this, Joe paddled back up the river and got the pole that Haley had left standing in the middle of the river.
While all these problems were happening on the girls’ raft, all the boys were watching them and laughing at them! The boys were not watching where their raft was going, and it hit a rock! The raft stopped suddenly and tipped to the side! All the boys fell off the raft! The boys had to work together and push their raft ahead of themselves as they swam toward shore. Joe was very busy picking up poles and paddles and taking them to the boy’s raft.
The rest of the day the rafts floated slowly in the current. The kids became very good at steering their rafts around rock and logs. They also became good at getting back onto the rafts, so there was a lot of jumping and swimming! There were also several times that one of the kids had to grab the rope tied to Joe’s kayak and get pulled back to their raft. Joe cheerfully took care of each of the kids when they needed help.
At the end of the afternoon the rafts floated to a campground, and the kids were surprised! Their parents had brought tents, sleeping bags, and lots of food! They were going to spend the night in tents. Their parents cooked a very good meal over the campfire, then they left for home. As Joe, Haley, and the kids sat around the campfire, Joe taught them a little more about God.
Joe told the kids that the life of a believer is a lot like their trip down the river. Life is a journey, and sometimes it is not easy. The kids would not have been able to finish the raft trip without Joe being there to give them advice and to help them when they got into trouble. It is the same in the life of a believer, God has promised to go with the believer every step of the journey and help each believer when they have hard times.
In the Bible in Deuteronomy 31:8 it says:
Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; He will neither fail you nor abandon you.
In the Bible in Matthew 28:20b Jesus says:
“And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
In the Bible in Romans 8:31-35, 37-39 it says:
What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since He did not spare even His own Son but gave Him up for us all, won’t He also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for His own? No one – for God Himself has given us right standing with Himself. Who then will condemn us? No one – for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and He is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us. 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 things, 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 God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below – indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
After reading these verses from the Bible, Joe reminded the kids that if they have asked Jesus to come live in their heart, then Jesus is with them every step of the journey of life. Nothing can make Jesus leave or cause His love for us to go away!