One morning Joe got up at the farm at Medford Forest and he was completely happy! It was a beautiful day; the sun was shining and the temperature outside was warm. It was also the first day of his daughter Haley’s summer vacation from school, and Joe was looking forward to spending time with Haley this summer.
Joe’s pleasant morning was shattered by the arrival of Haley! She stumbled into the kitchen in a very bad mood. She yanked the cupboard door open and grabbed a box of cereal. Unfortunately, she had forgotten to close the box last time, and she had put the box upside down into the cupboard. All the cereal was dumped out onto the floor! Haley screamed in anger and slammed the cupboard door shut! She forgot that her head was still in front of the cupboard, so she slammed that door into the side of her face! Now Haley was mad! She started to stomp out of the kitchen and go outside, but she slipped on the cereal and fell to the floor with a loud crunch! The cereal was smashed beyond recognition!
Haley screamed, “Sometimes I just hate myself! I am so clumsy! Why was I even born!”
Throughout all this Joe sat at the table and tried not to laugh as he watched Haley destroy the cereal. Joe gave Haley a few minutes to calm down and then he told her, “God had made her special, and He does not make mistakes.”
Haley did not want to believe her dad, and she said, “Why did God make me like this? No one else is as clumsy as me! Everyone laughs at me! Why am I like this? Who am I?”
Joe answered and said, “I think that would be a good project for you this summer. You are now on a quest to find out who God says you are. You are going to learn so many things. Some of the things will not be easy to accept, but other things will be wonderful! We will talk more about it this evening. Meanwhile, today I need you to get two bales of hay out of the barn’s hayloft. One of the families from Church need some hay, and I sold them two bales.”
Haley promised that she would get two bales out of the hayloft right away. She was happy to help Joe since he could not get up into the hayloft because he was crippled and had to use crutches to get around.
Joe grabbed his crutches and got up to fix Haley some toast and eggs for breakfast. After breakfast Haley went outside. She planned to get the bales of hay out of the hayloft right away, but she saw her pet raccoon, Daniel, and he was headed towards the river. It was always fun to watch Daniel look for food by the river, so Haley decided to follow Daniel.
Haley watched Daniel catch some small fish, wash them (even though they came from the water) and then eat them. Haley was not paying attention to what she was doing, and she slipped and fell into the river. The current was fast in that spot, and it quickly carried Haley downstream! Haley could swim very good, so she was not in danger of drowning, but she bumped into a log. There were two small turtles sunning themselves on the log. The turtles tired to jump off the log, but they landed on Haley’s head! Haley screamed and scared the turtles! They thought that Haley was a large screaming monster! The turtles jumped off Haley and swam for their lives!
Haley dragged herself out of the river and had to go to the house to change clothes. Joe just looked at her and shook his head. Haley’s whole day was one disaster after another. No matter what she did, she got into trouble! She had to change her clothes three times during that day!
At the end of the day, Haley came back to the house. She was tired and hungry. As she was going past the barn, she saw Joe talking to the man from Church. The two bales of hay were in the back of his truck. The man had had to go up into the hayloft to get the bales of hay because Haley had forgotten to do it!
After supper that night Joe said that he needed to talk to Haley. Haley thought that she was in trouble because she forgot to get the bales of hay. Joe looked at her for a minute without saying anything, then he asked her why she had not gotten the bales of hay out of the barn. Haley thought about trying to use an excuse, but she knew that she did not have a good excuse, so she admitted that she had forgotten.
Joe said, “I told you to get the hay bales down, and you promised that you would do it right away. Disobedience and breaking promises are sins. You asked me earlier who you are, and we have seen today that one thing that describes you is that you are a sinner. In fact, every person in the world, except Jesus, is a sinner.”
In the Bible in Romans 5:12 it says:
When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.
In the Bible in Romans 3:23-26 it says:
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in His grace, freely makes us right in His sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding His blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when He held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for He was looking ahead and including them in what He would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate His righteousness, for He Himself is fair and just, and He makes sinners right in His sight when they believe in Jesus.
“One common trait that every human has is that they are a sinner. When you ask, ‘who am I’ the first part of that answer is that you are a sinner. Forgiveness is offered through Jesus, the Son of God. He died on the cross to pay for our sins, then rose from the dead. The first step in accepting that forgiveness is to understand that you are a sinner.”
Haley thought about this for a few minutes, then said, “I understand that I am a sinner. It is not easy or pleasant to think about being a sinner, but it is so true!”