One day Shane and Shelly climbed the hill behind the town to visit their friend Professor Ooops. It had been two years since they went on the adventures with the Professor and the flying bus. Shane and Shelly were now 14 years old, and they helped with the grade school children’s group at their Church.
The Professor invited them into his house, which was made from three school buses welded together end-to-end. Shane and Shelly were too excited to sit still; they had some great news to tell the Professor! One of Shane’s friends was a member of the boy scouts, and he had told Shane about having a pinewood derby. The pinewood derby was a lot of fun; each person built a car out of block of pinewood, and then they raced the cars down a track. Shane had asked the leader of the grade school children’s group at Church if they could have a pinewood derby. The leader liked the idea but said that Shane would have to find an adult to take charge of the project, help build the cars and the racetrack, and to supervise the races.
Naturally Shane and Shelly had decided to ask their friend Professor Ooops to be the adult in charge of the pinewood derby. For the past two years since the Professor had accepted Jesus into his life, he had been studying the Bible and learning a lot about Jesus. The Professor was looking for a chance to serve Jesus, and he was excited to take on this challenge!
The Professor was a man of action! He jumped to his feet and said, “Let’s go to the Church and have the races this afternoon!” Shelly calmly explained to the Professor that they could not have the races that afternoon, they needed to do a lot of work before it was time to hold the races. They needed a plan. The Professor said, “Ooops!”, and sat down.
Shelly started a list of the things that needed to be done before they could have the pinewood derby:
- Set a date to start building the race cars,
- Set a date to finish building the race cars.
- Set a date for the race.
- Buy materials and build the racetrack.
- Buy materials for the pinewood derby cars.
- Help the kids design and cut out the cars.
- Help the kids sand and paint the cars.
- Weigh the cars to make sure it is a fair race.
- Prepare to fix the cars if they break down during the races.
- Send an invitation to family and friends of the kids to come and watch the races.
- Buy prizes.
- Have the pinewood derby race.
The Professor looked at Shelly’s list, and he thought it was a good list, but he wanted to add two more things to the list:
- The Professor wanted to teach the children a lesson about God each time he met with them.
- After the races were over, the Professor wanted some of the kids to make up some stories about their cars. He wanted them to imagine that their car was a ‘super-hero’ that appeared at just the right time to ‘save the day’. The Professor would use these stories to teach the kids more things about God!
The next time the children’s group met; Professor Ooops went to the meeting. He walked to the front of the room and tripped over his shoelaces! He fell and knocked over a table that had the treats for the kids on it. Kool-Aid and cookies went flying! The kids scrambled to get out of the way and knocked over several plants that were decorating the room! The Professor said, “Ooops”!
Once everything was cleaned up, the Professor explained to the kids about Shane’s idea for a pinewood derby. All the kids were excited and could not wait to begin building their cars!
The Professor showed the kids the plan that Shelly had made and included his own two ideas to add to the plan. The Professor told them that he was going to teach them a lesson about God right then!
Professor Ooops Lesson from the Bible:
Just like Shelly had a plan for the pinewood derby, God also had a plan. The plan began at the very beginning when God created humans. Originally humans had no sin and had a perfect friendship with God, but humans sinned and destroyed that perfect friendship.
It looked hopeless, but God had another plan. In the Bible in Romans 5:6-11 it says:
When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, He will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of His Son while we were still His enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of His Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.
God’s plan was wonderful! God sent His one and only son Jesus to die on the cross to pay for our sins! Now we can be forgiven and become friends of God! It is the greatest plan ever, but each person must believe in Jesus, pray and ask for their sins to be forgiven, and give Jesus control of their life.
In the Bible in II Corinthians 6:2 it says:
For God says, “At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.” Indeed, the “right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation.
God has a wonderful plan for each of us, but we must accept His plan. Do not put it off, pray and give your life to Jesus today!