It was almost race day, and the track was not built yet! The Professor, Shane and Shelly had to get busy! All the wood for the track was at the Church, and the Professor had printed out instructions from his computer. It should be easy, right? Wrong! It was not easy!
The pieces of wood were wide enough, but they had to be joined end-to-end to make the track long enough. The Professor used screws to attach the first two long pieces, and they looked good! Shane lifted one end of the two pieces and Shelly tried to roll one of their cars down the two pieces of wood. The car started to roll, started to go faster, and then it happened! When the car got to the place where the two pieces of wood had been joined, the car stopped suddenly and flipped over and fell to the ground! The Professor said, “Ooops!” There was a ridge where the two pieces of wood came together. Shane got some sandpaper and sanded that ridge until it was so smooth that the car did not even bump when it went from one piece of wood to the other. Six long pieces of wood had to be joined together, and Shane had to sand the ridge on every piece! It was a lot of work, but Shane kept going until he got that track smooth!
The Professor said that they should be able to race four cars at one time, so they set the track up and made sure they had pieces of wood under it so that it was supported the whole length. They started four cars at the same time, and it was an exciting moment! All four cars started down the track, and then it happened! The cars all started going to the right! They ran into each other and then all four of them fell off the track! Wheels broke off and went rolling in every direction! The Professor said, “Ooops!”
They needed to use strips of wood to make four lanes down the track so that the cars would all stay in their own lane. Now all the cars stayed in their own lanes, but the whole track still leaned to the right and the car in the right lane fell off the track and broke! The Professor said, “Ooops!” The track needed to be made level from side-to-side. The Professor had a tool called a level and he set it across the track. When the bubble in the level was centered the track was level. Shane and Shelly adjusted the wood pieces under the track until the track was level all the way from the beginning to the end. Now the cars ran down the track in their own lane and did not go to the right or fall off the track!
Just then the Professor’s phone rang! It was the kids’ Sunday School teacher. She had to go out of town and wanted to know if the Professor could teach the class that Sunday. The Professor was so happy! He wanted to teach the kids some more and he had just learned a great lesson to teach them from the Bible!
Professor Ooops Lesson from the Bible:
That Sunday the kids were surprised to see the Professor in their Sunday School class, but they always loved to have the Professor teach them about God!
The Professor told the kids how Shane and Shelly had worked with him to build the track for the Pinewood Derby. It had looked like an easy project, but it had been so hard to get everything level and smooth so that all the cars would be able to race their best. Building the track had reminded the Professor of some verses from the Bible.
In the Bible in Isaiah 26:7-8 it says:
But for those who are righteous, the way is not steep and rough. You are a God who does what is right, and you smooth out the path ahead of them. Lord, we show our trust in you by obeying your laws; our heart’s desire is to glorify your name.
The Professor told the kids that in these Bible verses God is comparing the life of a Believer to a road. If we tried to please God and live perfectly, we would find that it is impossible, but in these verses, God says that He goes ahead of us in life and fixes the road for us. We can only live a life that pleases God if we let Him help us, we cannot do it on our own!
Just like the Professor, Shane, and Shelly fixed the track so that the kids could have a fair race, God fixes the road of the believer’s life so that they can live the life that He wants them to live.