The secret recipe for candy-flavored pop had just been put in the mail, and Leapfrog was hanging upside down, the shoelaces of his rollerblades were tangled in the radio antenna on top of Trixie’s Grandpa’s store. Toenail knew that he had to take immediate action, but he did not know what to do first! Should he leave Leapfrog hanging upside down and chase the secret recipe through the mail, or should he take a long time and try to figure out how to get Leapfrog down? It was an awful decision, and he thought about it for two days! Finally, he decided to abandon Leapfrog and to follow the secret recipe.
The first thing that Toenail did was to buy $72 worth of stamps, so that he could mail himself to the same place that the secret recipe was going to. He put those stamps all over himself and then tried to squeeze into the mailbox! He did not fit! He got his head, shoulders, and both arms inside, but the rest of him was hanging out of the mailbox! He could not get out, he was stuck! Some ants started crawling down his pants leg, and that tickled, so he was laughing uncontrollably and could not get rid of the ants because his arms were inside the mailbox. Then something else happened, something so horrifically bad, that Toenail forgot all about the ants in his pants! Something landed on his bare feet; it was a large purple bird! The purple bird obviously did not have a good nose; otherwise it could have never tolerated the smell of Toenail’s feet! The bird began to peck at Toenail’s toes, this did not tickle at all, it hurt! But Toenail could not do anything about this either because his arms were still stuck in the mailbox! Then another purple bird landed on his other foot, this bird could not peck his feet because it had a stick in his mouth. The purple birds were starting to build a nest on Toenail’s feet! Just as the purple birds finished building the nest a horrible thing happened! The sky above the nest darkened and there was a terrifying noise! The purple birds got out of the way just in time! An overweight eagle with short eyelashes snatched that empty nest and tried to fly away with it! The eagle found out that the nest was securely attached to Toenail’s feet; Toenail was snatched right out of that mailbox and found himself flying, attached to the eagle by the nest that was stuck to his feet!
It looked like Toenail had another chance to die before this adventure was over! The eagle was mad, and he wanted to take Toenail high into the air and then drop him. But something strange started to happen! The smell from Toenail’s bare feet was so bad, that the eagle’s feathers started to fall out. The eagle flapped his wings harder and harder, but he just could not fly anymore! The eagle let go of Toenail and the empty nest. Toenail plummeted toward the ground, but fortunately he landed on a worn-out tire and bounced up and down for 15 minutes!
At the end of 15 minutes, Toenail fell off the tire, slid down a hill on his nose, he flipped over 13 times, and got dirt in his ear! There was a little girl standing there laughing at him! Toenail jumped to his feet, and he was mad, no one should laugh at a superhero like him! The laughing girl turned out to be Trixie! She had escaped from the police in Utah and followed Leapfrog and Toenail to Indiana! She laughed and laughed at Toenail, and Toenail got so mad that he wanted to get even with her, so he started to laugh at her!
Trixie asked him, “Why are you laughing at me?” Toenail did not know why he was laughing, so he had to make up an excuse. Toenail used his super-powered brain and quickly came up with a great excuse! He said, “I am laughing at you because you breathe air!” That sounded so crazy that Trixie laughed even harder. She was laughing so hard that she was rolling on the ground and tears were running out of her eyes! Toenail still wanted to get even, so he tried to kick her real hard. He forgot that he was still barefoot and when he kicked, his feet went flying out from under him. Toenail went flying into the air, and in his extreme terror he screamed like a mosquito drowning in Kool-Aid! Toenail landed on the ground with a thump, and he found that the big toe on his right foot was stuck in his nose, and he could not get it out! Trixie laughed harder and harder, she could not stop, and her face started to turn purple! Toenail was in agony because with his toe stuck in his nose, and he had to smell his own feet! They smelled worse than a paperclip in chocolate pudding!
Eventually, Trixie stopped laughing long enough to pull on Toenail’s leg and his toe popped right out of his nose! Toenail was still mad at Trixie, so he reached down to pick up a rock to throw at her, unfortunately instead of a rock, he picked up a big wad of used, blue bubble gum. When he tried to throw it, it would not come out of his hand! He managed to get it all over his face and stuck in his hair!
Toenail began yelling at Trixie, he said, “I hate you! You have cooties, it’s your fault that we are here, it’s your fault that I have this pizza box stuck to my head, it’s your fault that Leapfrog is hanging upside down at your Grandpa’s store, it’s your fault that we have lost our chance to get the recipe for candy-flavored pop, it’s your fault that water is so wet, it’s your fault that I do not have shoes, and it’s your fault that I have never been to Argentina!
Trixie stopped laughing; in fact, she started to cry! Toenail realized that she had not done any of the things that he had accused her of doing. She was just a seven-year-old little girl. Toenail felt bad, he put his arm around Trixie and apologized to her for all the mean things he had said, and all the mean things he had tried to do to her.
After a while Trixie stopped crying, and when she could talk again, she asked him, “Why is Leapfrog hanging upside down? He was so nice to me; he is my friend!” Toenail explained how the flock of wild turkeys had dropped Leapfrog from the air, and he had been saved from certain death by the shoestrings in his rollerblades getting tangled on a radio antenna on top of her grandpa’s store. Toenail then said, “I want to get Leapfrog down, but we would need three helicopters, 300 feet of rope, a large trampoline, 2 parachutes, and a blueberry pie, just to get him down! Trixie asked, “Why don’t we just untie the shoestrings and take him down?” Toenail had not thought of that idea, it just seemed way too easy, and of course superheroes like to do things in the most difficult way that they can.
So, Toenail and Trixie walked back to where Leapfrog was just hanging out. Trixie did not want Leapfrog to get hurt when they untied the shoestrings, so she put a pillow on the ground under him. The wind kept blowing the pillow away, so Toenail piled rocks on top of the pillow so that it would not blow away. Trixie climbed up on the radio antenna and began untying the shoestrings. She got the first shoestring untied, but the second one was tied too tight! Trixie was pulling on that shoestring with all her strength when it happened! The shoestring broke, Trixie lost her balance and began to fall, Leapfrog caught her just in time, Leapfrog’s foot came out of the roller blade, Leapfrog landed on his one rollerblade, and he was still holding Trixie! Leapfrog and Trixie went flying down the hill, Leapfrog was desperately trying to keep his balance on his one rollerblade, Trixie was holding onto Leapfrog’s ears and trying not to fall off! They went down the hill and then headed straight for……….
Application:
In the Bible, in Matthew 5:38-48 Jesus says:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
In our story today, Toenail had convinced himself that Trixie was his enemy. He believed that Trixie was the cause of all his problems. Toenail hated Trixie and tried to hurt her and called her names. Toenail found out that this did not solve the problem, it only made him look foolish and he ended up causing Trixie to cry!
Toenail finally realized that Trixie was not his enemy, she was only a little girl. Yes, she could be irritating, but she was made by God, just like Toenail was made by God. God makes each of us special, but we are not all created identical.
In the verses we just read, Jesus tells us that when we have a person who we think is an enemy because they are different or they are irritating, we should go out of our way to show them kindness and look for the goodness that God created in them. Remember, we are all created in the image of God!
Toenail learned that someone who he believed was an enemy can turn out to be a friend and ended up helping him!