Now that all the cars had names written on the bottom, all the kids were ready for the next step. At the next meeting, the Professor told the kids that they needed to sand the wood so that the wood would be smooth.
The Professor showed the kids that he had several different kinds of sandpaper; some of it was very rough and some was less rough, and some of the sandpaper was almost smooth! The Professor told the kids that the very rough sandpaper was called ‘course sandpaper’, and it was used to remove wood if there was a sharp corner or a deep scratch. The medium sandpaper was used to smooth the edges and to remove any marks left by the saw. The sandpaper that was almost smooth was called ‘fine’ sandpaper, and it was used on the whole car to make it very smooth!
The Professor demonstrated how to use sandpaper. He took a block of wood and started sanding a sharp corner with course sandpaper. The Professor was talking while he was sanding and not paying attention to what he was doing! The sandpaper slipped off the wood and slid up the Professor’s arm! The Professor said, “Ooops!”, and then he said, “Oww, that hurt!”
The Professor then took a piece of fine sandpaper and began sanding his block of wood very fast! He rubbed the sandpaper on the wood faster and faster! Suddenly the Professor dropped the sandpaper and stuck his fingers in his mouth! The Professor tried to say, “Ooops!” but he could not say it because his fingers were in his mouth! Then the Professor took his fingers out of his mouth and said, “Oww, that hurt! The sandpaper got very hot when I sanded that fast!” So, the Professor taught the kids that they needed to pay attention to what they were doing and be careful, they needed to sand slow and steady, not go too fast, and they should also sand in the same direction as the lines in the wood.
The kids all got sandpaper and began sanding their pinewood derby cars. Shane and Shelly helped the kids that asked for help, and they were very busy because most of the kids needed help! Everything was going well until one of the youngest kids began to cry! Shelly ran to that small child and asked her why she was crying. The little girl said that she was sad because they were hurting the wood by rubbing the sandpaper on it! Shelly did not know what to say! She tried to explain to the little girl that the wood was not alive, and it could not feel pain, but the little girl did not believe her!
By the end of the evening, the cars were all sanded, but many of the kids had sore hands. Shane and Shelly had helped the kids so much that they both had blisters on their hands! They were all glad that the evening was over, but it was not quite over yet! The Professor told the kids that he had another Bible lesson to teach them! The kids were excited because they liked to listen to the Professor teach them things from the Bible! So, they all gathered around the Professor, and he opened his Bible to teach them.
Professor Ooops Lesson from the Bible:
The Professor told the kids that they had worked hard and that they had sore hands. Shane and Shelly even had blisters! The kids looked at Shane and Shelly’s hands and they felt very sorry for them because the blisters looked like they hurt a lot!
The Professor opened his Bible to James 1:2-4 where it says:
Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
The Professor told the kids that most people do not enjoy sanding pinewood derby cars because it takes a lot of time and effort to get the job done, hands get sore and sometimes even blisters form. The Professor picked up one of the smooth cars and had all the kids feel it and told them that all that hard work made a big difference in the pinewood derby car! It is now very smooth and ready to be painted!
In the same way, we do not like it when troubles come into our life, and many times we wonder why God allows these things to happen. The Professor remembered that the little girl had been upset and crying because she thought the wood was being hurt, and the Professor said that when troubles come into our life, we get hurt! It does not feel good at all!
These verses say that God allows these troubles and hard times to come into our life to teach us endurance (another word for endurance is patience)! God has a plan for us, and everything that happens in a believer’s life is there for a purpose! We can have joy even in hard times because we know that God is in control, and He is doing something special in our life!