Last week we heard the story of how the two kids played hide & seek in their pinewood derby cars. The boy went first and hid on top of the hill by the town’s water tower. Now it was the girl’s turn to hide. They had agreed to the following rules for their game:
- The person hiding with their car is given five minutes head start to get to their hiding place.
- Once they are hidden, they cannot move until either they are found, or time runs out (one hour after they the other person begins looking).
- The person hiding must write down three clues before they leave. These clues will help the other person figure out how to find them.
- The clues cannot be lies!
Before they could start playing hide & seek, they had to get the girl cleaned up a bit. She and her car were filthy after she had chased and found the boy. The boy chased the chipmunk away and then cleaned out her pinewood derby car, and she jumped into the creek and got the mud off her. Soon she was ready to go!
The girl thought for a few minutes and wrote down three clues for the boy:
- I love to be in my favorite place.
- Roads go around many curves with great views.
- The sunset will be beautiful tonight.
After writing the clues, the girl gave the clues to the boy and then she got in her pinewood derby car and drove away as fast as she could.
The boy waited for five minutes, but then he did not start looking for her right away. He took some time to think. It was just an hour before sunset, so he did not have much time. He thought about all three clues, and then suddenly he remembered something!
The girl had many times talked to her friends about going to her favorite place to watch the sunset. He remembered her saying that she loved to ride her bike and take a long ride through the country along a beautiful road. The road circled around back towards town, and then she would stop at her favorite place just outside of town and watch the sunset. So, the boy knew that her favorite place was very close, but he did not know exactly where it was. How was he going to find the place?
Then the boy remembered something else! One time the girl had posted a picture of the sunset on her Facebook page! He got out his phone and opened Facebook and looked up that picture that she had posted! In the picture there was a road going down a small hill and curving to the left. There was a red barn beside the road and the sun was going down behind the barn. The sky was a beautiful orange and red!
The boy was excited! He recognized that road and that barn! He knew exactly where it was! The boy jumped into his pinewood derby car and raced to that road! He got to the top of the small hill and saw the red barn by the curve in the road. The sun was starting to go down and everything looked perfect! There was just one problem, the girl was nowhere in sight!
The boy was confused, he was sure he was in the right place, but the girl was not there! What had gone wrong? The boy thought for a minute, and then he remembered something else! The girl also took the long curvy country road and looked at all the beautiful places on her way to her favorite place! She had not gotten here yet! All the boy needed to do was wait for a while!
The boy watched the sun get lower and lower. The scattered clouds in the sky turned brighter and brighter orange and red! Just before the sun went down, the boy heard a pinewood derby car coming along the road! The girl screeched to a stop at the top of the hill, and the boy calmly said, “I found you!”
Professor Ooops Lesson from the Bible:
The Professor told the kids that most people have a favorite place where they would rather go than anywhere else. Some people go to their favorite place every day, but other people can only go to their favorite place once in a while.
Someday all believers who have Jesus in their heart will have a new favorite place! That favorite place is called heaven. We do not know everything about what heaven will be like, but the Bible gives us clues about how wonderful heaven will be.
In the Bible in John 14:1-3 Jesus says:
“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in Me. There is more than enough room in my father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.”
In the Bible in Revelation 21:3-5 it says:
I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among His people! He will live with them, and they will be His people. God Himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” And the One sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then He said, to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.”
In the Bible in I John 3:2-3 it says:
Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but He has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He really is. And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as He is pure.
What we learn from these clues is that Jesus Himself has been making a special place for each believer in heaven. After this life, when we get to heaven, we will live with God forever. We will never feel pain or sadness again, and we will never be sick again or die again!
The best part will be that we will know God completely. There will be no more mystery about what God is really like, we will live with God and know Him as a friend!
Heaven will truly be our favorite place forever!