In the last story, the Black River that runs through the Medford Forest flooded, and Joe and Haley performed a daring rescue to save a baby raccoon that they named Daniel (after Joe’s brother). They adopted Daniel into their family and made a cozy room for him in their barn.
One morning, a few days later, the peacefulness of the farm and the forest was shattered by a scream from Haley! She yelled, “I cannot believe that this has happened!” Joe was just taking a carton of eggs out of the refrigerator so that he could make scrambled eggs for breakfast when Haley came running into the kitchen. She tripped over one of Joe’s crutches and fell while knocking the carton of eggs out of Joe’s hand. Haley did two summersaults through the air and landed against the far wall! The eggs flew gracefully through the air and all splatted against the far wall! As Haley lay on the floor the broken eggs all fell off the wall and landed on her! She was a mess. Joe tried very hard not to laugh and calmly asked her if there was a problem. Haley jumped to her feet and promptly slipped on some eggs and fell again! As she lay on the floor she said, “My shiny green and purple ring is missing! I remember taking it off last night and laying it on my dresser, and this morning it is gone!” Since there was nothing left to eat for breakfast, Joe and Haley spent the rest of the morning looking for the shiny green and purple ring, but they could not find it. It was a mystery!
The next morning the peacefulness of the farm and the forest was shattered by a scream from Haley! She yelled, “I cannot believe that this has happened!” Joe heard Haley running to the kitchen and he made sure the crutches and eggs were out of the way. Haley burst into the kitchen at full speed and tried to stop, but she was going too fast! She slid across floor right into the kitchen table. The table did not stop her! She slid right across the top of the table! Dishes and silverware went flying in all directions! At the far end of the table was a pitcher of orange juice. Haley hit the orange juice just as she slid to a stop! The pitcher of orange juice went straight up in the air (almost to the ceiling) and then turned over! All the orange juice landed on Haley’s hair and then the empty pitcher came down and clunked her on the head! Once again Joe stayed very calm and did not laugh. Haley yelled, “Today my volleyball trophy is missing! Not the small one, but the big one that is all silver and shiny!” Since there was no orange juice to drink, Joe and Haley spent the morning searching for the volleyball trophy, but they could not find it anywhere. This mystery was getting scary! Was someone breaking into their house and taking things during the night?
The next morning the peacefulness of the farm and the forest was shattered by a scream from Haley! She yelled, “I cannot believe that this has happened!” Joe heard Haley running to the kitchen and he made sure the crutches, eggs, dishes, silverware, and orange juice were out of the way. Haley burst into the kitchen and tripped over her own feet! She stumbled at full speed right past the refrigerator! She grabbed the handle of the refrigerator to try to stop herself, but she just pulled the door completely open…. And then the refrigerator began to tip…it slowly tipped… and then it fell with a crash and all the food came falling out onto the floor! Haley fell over backwards, and her head landed right in a pot of tomato soup! Once again Joe stayed calm and did not laugh. Haley yelled, “Now my cell phone is missing! It was brand new, and I had not even turned it on yet! I was charging it overnight before I began to use it. The charger is still plugged into the wall, but my new shiny cell phone is gone! What is happening around here?” Joe noticed that Haley had been so upset for the last three days that she had forgotten to wash her hair! Her hair had dried egg and egg shells in it, it was sticky and sticking out in every direction because of the dried orange juice and now it was bright red from the tomato soup. Joe suggested that Haley take a long shower and wash her hair several times and then they would look for her cell phone. They looked for the cell phone the rest of the day but could not find it!
In the middle of the next night the peacefulness of the farm and the forest was shattered by a scream from Haley! She yelled, “Someone just jumped on my bed!” Joe heard footsteps running in the hallway and he wondered how he could get his crutches and get down to the kitchen before Haley destroyed something else! Then Joe realized that it was not Haley’s footsteps that he heard, it was the midnight prowler! The footsteps were coming right toward Joe’s room! Joe thought he was going to scream when the midnight prowler jumped on his bed, but then he discovered who the prowler was… it was Daniel! Joe grabbed Daniel and turned on the light and called to Haley, “It’s all right it’s only Daniel!” They were much too excited to go back to sleep, so they got up, got dressed and went to the kitchen for some hot chocolate. Haley did not even spill anything! They turned on the computer and looked up information about raccoons. They found out that since a raccoon’s toes are a lot like our fingers, they can usually figure out how to open doors and get into things. Raccoons are also very curious and they like to find and take shiny things. Now Haley understood that Daniel was the one who had taken her green and purple ring, her volleyball trophy, and her cell phone. But where had Daniel taken Haley’s things? …… that is what we will find out next time!
Application: God’s love takes away our fears
- Even though Daniel did some bad things by taking Haley’s ring, trophy and cell phone, Joe and Haley did not get mad at Daniel.
- God does not get mad at us when we make mistakes and do wrong things.
- Joe and Haley did not kick Daniel out of their family because he was not perfect.
- God does not kick us out of His family because we are not perfect (remember God has adopted us into His family forever).
- Joe and Haley are going to try to teach Daniel to not take things,
- God wants to teach us how to be more like Jesus Christ.
In the Bible in I John 4:18-19 it says:
Where God’s love is, there is no fear, because God’s perfect love drives out fear. It is punishment that makes a person fear, so love is not made perfect in the person who fears. We love because God first loved us.
One of the advantages of accepting Jesus and becoming a Christian is that Christians begin to learn about real love! None of us deserve God’s love, but God sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross to pay for our sins because He loved us and wanted to have a relationship with us! Once a person accepts Jesus into their life, they experience forgiveness of their sins and experience the undeserved love of God! A Christian does not need to fear punishment for the sins that they have committed, because those sins have been forgiven and removed! Because God loved us so much, we can begin to learn how to love God and love other people in the same way that God loved us!