The next time the kids came to Dave’s campfire, he was ready with another story. This time the story was about a time when they went on a bike trip to a campground by a lake. The trip should have been about 42 miles long, but it did not turn out that way!
They thought that they had planned the trip very well. They had brought food for the trip, they had made reservations at the campground, they had brought tents, each of the bikers had brought sleeping bags and spare clothes, they had a good map, and they had an old school bus that would travel behind them carrying the supplies.
The weather was beautiful and sunny that morning and it looked like nothing could go wrong! Then they made their first mistake! It was time to go, but the bus driver had not finished loading all the supplies onto the bus. The bus driver told the bikers to start out, and after he finished loading the bus he would catch up with them. This should not have been too hard because the bus could travel much faster than the bicycles. The bus driver looked at the map and told the bikers to head out on Stateline Road and he would see them soon. This seemed like a good plan, so the bikers started on their journey.
Soon there was a was a problem, the bikers came to an intersection and the road sign showed that Stateline Road turned to the right and began curving towards the southeast. This did not seem right because Stateline Road should travel straight east and west along the border between the two States! Now the bikers made their second mistake! They should have waited at that intersection until the bus caught up with them, so that they could look at the map which was on the bus (this story happened before cell phones were invented)! Instead of waiting, they turned to the right and started following the road that the sign said was Stateline Road.
Shortly after the bikers headed in the wrong direction, the bus came to that same intersection. The bus driver was puzzled too, the sign did not seem to be pointing in the right direction. The bus driver looked at the map and found that the sign was wrong! Someone had turned that sign so that it was pointing in the wrong direction! The bus driver was not fooled by that sign because he had a map. The bus driver followed the map and went in the right direction.
Meanwhile, the bikers were all on the wrong road. They did not know where they were, and they were not even sure what State they were in! They stopped at a farmhouse and asked where they were and found out that they were lost in the wrong State! A while later they were going to stop at another farmhouse to ask for more directions, but a large dog came out and chased the bikers for about a half mile! Finally, about noon they crossed the Stateline back into the correct State! They came to a small town and found that they were only 16 miles from where they had started! They guessed that they had pedaled around 30 miles. Being lost had been no fun at all!
All the bikers were very hungry, but all their food was on the bus, and they had lost their bus! All the bikers got out the money they had with them, and by putting all the money together they had enough to get each biker a small hamburger at a café in the town.
After that small lunch they got good directions to the campground from the people at the café, and then they began pedaling again. The bright sunshine got covered by clouds, and at first this was a good thing because it was not so hot now. Soon those clouds began to rain! It was not light and gentle rain, but it was pouring down rain, and it was a cold rain! Of course, all the raincoats were on the bus, and they had lost their bus!
There was nothing to do except to keep pedaling! So, they pedaled on through the rain. They had to be very careful on hills and curves because the rain made the road slippery. They did not want to have any accidents because their first aid kit and spare bike parts were all on the bus!
Eventually they made it to the campground, and just before they got there the rain stopped and the sun came out again! Their bus was already at the campground, and the driver was wondering where they had been all day!
Dave told the kids that back in the days before cell phones, it could be a very serious problem to get lost without a map! Before taking any trip, a person needed to study the map to find the best route and to learn the names of the roads, otherwise they could easily get fooled by a wrong sign or a missing sign!
The same is true about living life in this world! Many people in this world are wandering through life, with no purpose. They do not know how to find contentment in this life, and they do not know how to get to heaven after this life on earth is over. They hope that when this life is over, somehow God will let them into heaven. God has given us a map to guide us through this life, and to tell us how to get to heaven after this life is over. That map is called the Bible!
The Bible tells us how to live the best life on this earth. In the Bible in Psalms 119:105 it says:
Your word (the Bible) is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.
The Bible also tells us that the only way to get to heaven after this life on earth is to accept Jesus into our life and ask Him to forgive our sins.
In the Bible in John 14:6 it says:
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father (get to heaven) except through Me”
Dave told the kids that they needed to make sure that they had prayed and asked Jesus to forgive them and come into their life, and then they needed to read and learn the Bible so that they would have the right map to go through life!