The next day the rain had stopped, but it was very foggy. The bus driver could hardly see the road while driving out to the farm and had to go very slowly. When they got to the farm, Haley and Joe met the kids at the bus. The fog was so thick that they could not see the house, the barn, the windmill, the milkhouse or anything else!
Haley wanted to take the kids for a walk in the fog and go to the forest, and the kids were excited about that idea! It would be fun and kind of spooky to walk in the fog! Joe was concerned that they would get lost in the fog, but Haley said that she knew her way around the farm and the woods and would not get lost!
Joe told Haley to take a long rope out of the barn and have everyone hold onto the rope so that no one would get separated and lost. Haley got the rope and they headed into the fog. Haley headed for the forest, she was hoping her pet raccoon would come out of his hollow tree and join them on the hike. They walked for quite a while and Haley was wondering why they had not reached the forest yet, when suddenly the group walked into the corn field! Haley did not understand how they had gotten into the corn field, but she knew that the group had to turn left to get to the forest, so she turned left in the fog and kept walking.
Soon the group went through a ditch and the up onto the road! Haley was surprised! They should not be close to the road; the road was in the opposite direction from the forest! Haley immediately turned the group around and they headed away from the road toward the forest.
They walked for a long time but did not get to the forest. Haley was wondering where they were, when suddenly her foot sunk into soft ground, and she started to fall! Fortunately, she did not let go of the rope, and the kids saw that she was falling, and they pulled her back to solid ground! Now Haley was very confused! The soft, boggy ground was a long way from the forest! They had gone in the wrong direction again! So, Haley turned the group around and they headed in the direction that Haley thought might take them to the forest.
This time the group walked for almost an hour without getting to the forest or anywhere else! Haley was tired and discouraged and wanted to sit down and cry, but she knew that she had to keep going and take care of the kids. Haley was walking along and staring at the ground, trying not to cry, and not looking where she was going. Suddenly she stumbled against something made of wood and fell! The rest of the group was following so close that they fell on top of her! Joe heard a noise and opened the door of the farmhouse! He saw the amazing sight of the whole group of kids and Haley lying in a jumbled heap on the porch of the farmhouse! The group untangled themselves and got up. Joe asked them where they had been and Haley said, “Everywhere, and nowhere!” They all told Joe about wandering around all that time in the fog and never getting to the forest!
Joe fed them lunch, and while they were eating the sun came out and most of the fog disappeared! After lunch Haley said that she was going to take the kids to the forest to pick wild raspberries. It would be safe this time because the fog was gone and Haley had destroyed the beaver dam two days ago, so the path would not be blocked by the beaver pond! Joe was not so sure that this was a good idea, but Haley was not listening, and the kids were excited to go! They grabbed a bucket to carry the raspberries and away they went!
They found that the fog was not all gone; in the forest there were still patches of fog. They would be running down the trail in the sunshine, and then suddenly they would run in to a patch of cool moist fog! It was fun! Haley and kids would be yelling and running in the sunshine as fast as they could, and then they would plunge into a bank of fog! In the fog, even their yelling sounded different. They were having so much fun that they were not paying attention to where they were! Haley was leading the kids through a bank of thick fog when suddenly she was in deep water! She had run off the trail right into the beaver pond! The shock of the cold water made Haley stop yelling and she immediately realized something was very wrong! There should not be a beaver pond! Two days ago, she had ruined the beaver dam and drained the pond, and how here it was again! The beavers had fixed the dam!
The kids on the bank saw that Haley was in the current and once again she was headed straight towards the dam! The kids could not believe it, it was just like last time! Haley was going to crash into the dam and break it! They watched breathlessly as Haley got her feet in front of her just before she crashed into the dam! Once again, she hit the dam with a loud crash, and the kids waited for the branches in the dam to start cracking and breaking! The seconds ticked away, and nothing broke! The dam held together! Eventually Haley was able to climb onto the dam and walk across, the kids went below the dam and crossed the creek and joined her.
They picked and ate as many of the wild black raspberries as they could hold, and they filled the bucket with raspberries to take to Joe! When they arrived back at the farmhouse all the kids were excited, but Haley was still wet and muddy!
After Joe heard their story, he told all of them to sit down in a circle so he could talk to them about what they could learn from their adventures and what they could learn about God! The kids wanted to know why the beaver dam had not broken this time.
Joe told them that God has given beavers the intelligence to build dams, and to do it very well! When their dam is too weak, they have the intelligence to take out the weak branches, put in stronger branches to fix it and make it stronger. The dam across a creek or small river is their masterpiece. When Haley broke the dam, the beaver got to work and rebuilt the dam better than it was before. God does the same thing in the life of a believer! God is at work in the life of each person who has asked Jesus to forgive their sins and come into their life!
In the Bible in Ephesians 2:10 it says:
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good thing He planned for us long ago.
God is at work in the life of each believer, but sometimes life gets in the way! Hard times and difficulties come, and it seems like God’s good work in the life of a believer gets ruined, but God can handle this! Just like the beaver took out the pieces of the broken dam and fixed it better and stronger than it had been before; God takes the pieces of our broken life and remakes it into a better and stronger life than it was before!
In the Bible in Romans 8:28 it says:
And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.
God is doing this great work in the life of every believer, but sometimes it is hard to see how God is at work in our life or in the life of other believers around us! Joe pointed out that the fog that they had had during the day made it very hard to see where they were going. In the same way while we live in this world it can be very hard to see God clearly and see the work that He is doing. When our life on this earth is over, believers will get to heaven, and then we will be able to clearly see how God has been working constantly in our life while we were on this earth.
In the Bible in I Corinthians 13:12 it says:
Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.
If you are a believer and have asked Jesus to forgive your sins and come into your life, then you are being made into a masterpiece of God! He is at work in your life, even when you cannot see or understand what He is doing! At the end of this life, it will all become clear, and we will all celebrate together!