Two of the kids had worked together on adventure stories with their pinewood derby cars. They were going to play hide and seek! The Professor agreed to read one of their stories this week, and the other story next week.
One of the girls in the group had challenged one of the boys to a game of hide and seek with their pinewood derby cars. They agreed on a few simple rules:
- The person hiding with their car is given five minutes head start to get to their hiding place.
- Once they are hidden, they cannot move until either they are found, or time runs out (one hour after they the other person begins looking).
- The person hiding must write down three clues before they leave. These clues will help the other person figure out how to find them.
- The clues cannot be lies!
They asked the Professor to flip a coin to see who would go first. The Professor flipped a coin, but he could not catch it, and it fell on the ground, rolled down some stairs and into the road, and then fell into the storm drain in the road! The Professor said, “Ooops!”
The boy was mad because it was his coin, but the girl said that he could go first. The boy thought that this was very nice, and he got ready to go. He wrote down the three clues:
- I like to be around water.
- Roads that go up a hill can be very steep.
- I will be hidden by water on top of a hill.
After writing the clues, the boy folded the paper in half and gave it to the girl, then he jumped into his pinewood derby car and went speeding off. The girl carefully watched which way the boy went, but the boy was expecting this, and as soon as he was out of sight, he changed direction!
When the five minutes were up, the girl got in her pinewood derby car and went zooming off in the direction the boy had gone! Soon she found a small creek and she was so excited! The boy likes to be around water, he was probably hidden very close! The girl drove her car up and down the creek but did not find the boy. Then she noticed something; the second and third clues talked about steep hills and water on top of a hill, but the creek did not go up any hills! She stopped to think for a minute, and she realized that no rivers, creeks, lakes, or oceans go up hills. The clues did not make any sense!
The girl decided that the best thing to do was to go to the top of a hill, so she picked out a hill and began driving her pinewood derby car up that hill. The hill was very steep, and the wheels of the car were spinning in the dirt. By the time the girl got to the top of the hill, she was tired and dirty, and the hour was almost up! The girl looked around at the top of the hill, but there was no water in sight. She was almost ready to give up and she began to cry. She sat down on a rock and then she noticed the great view she had from the top of that hill!
She could see for miles! She saw the town she lived in and could even see her house! She could see farms, and woods and roads with cars driving on them! It was truly beautiful, and she was really enjoying that view! The only thing that was not completely beautiful was another hill by the town. That hill had most of the trees cut down and there was a cell tower, a tv station antenna and the town’s water tower on top of that hill. That hill was not beautiful, it was kind of ugly!
Suddenly the girl understood the clues! Water on top of a hill meant the water tower! The boy must be hiding by the water tower! The girl was ready to go find the boy, but was there time? The hour was almost over!
The girl jumped into her pinewood derby car and went speeding down the hill! Dirt, dust, and leaves were flying everywhere, but she did not care! The creek went between the two hills, and the girl did not take time to figure out an easy way to cross that creek, she went straight across that creek as fast as her car would go! Water splashed everywhere, but the girl did not care! The water tower hill was steeper than the first hill, but the girl was determined to get to the top! The car was surrounded by a thick cloud of dirt, leaves, and dust that was made by the spinning tires of the car!
The girl finally got to the top of that hill and went speeding to base of the water tower, and there was the boy and his car, hiding behind one of the legs of the water tower! The girl yelled “I found you!” They looked at the time on their phones and saw that the girl had found the boy in 59 minutes, she had a whole minute to spare! Then the boy looked closely at the girl and asked, “What happened to you?” The girl’s car was filled with dirty water, and she was covered in mud, dirt, leaves, and there was a chipmunk sitting on her head!
Professor Ooops Lesson from the Bible:
The Professor said that he liked this story because it had clues in it. People like to try to figure out clues. God know this, and His book, the Bible is filled with clues. When the Bible was being written, God chose certain people to be prophets. The prophets got messages about the future directly from God! Some of these messages were about who was going to win battles in the future, and these were very interesting, but these were not the most important messages.
The most important messages from God were about Jesus. God gave messages to the prophets about many of the details of the life of Jesus.
In the Bible in Micah 5:2 it says this about Jesus:
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel, whose origins are in the distant past, will come from you on My behalf.
Hundreds of years before Jesus was born as a human, God told the prophet Micah that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem.
In the Bible in Psalms 23:1-5 it tells how Jesus how he would help people live life:
The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows; He leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to His name. Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for You are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me. You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings. Surely Your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.
Before Jesus came to earth as a human (and still also God), people did not understand what Jesus would be like. Some people believed that God was very harsh and did not care about people. This chapter in Psalms describes Jesus as being tender-hearted, caring and loving.
In the Bible in Isaiah 53:3-12 it tells how Jesus would die to pay for our sins:
He was despised and rejected – a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on Him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses He carried; it was our sorrows that weighed Him down. And we thought His troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for His own sins! But He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on Him the sins of us all. He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet He never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, He did not open His mouth. Unjustly condemned, He was led away. No one cared that He died without descendants, that His life was cut short in midstream. But He was struck down for the rebellion of my people. He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone. But He was buried like a criminal; He was put in a rich man’s grave. But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush Him and cause Him grief. Yet when His life is made an offering for sin, He will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in His hands. When He sees all that is accomplished by His anguish, He will be satisfied. And because of His experience, My Righteous Servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for He will bear all their sins. I will give Him the honors of a victorious soldier, because He exposed Himself to death. He was counted among the rebels. He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.
This message to the prophet Isaiah describes in detail how Jesus would die, and then it says that Jesus will see all that His payment for sins accomplished. It is very clear that Jesus would rise from the dead! This message with all these details was given to the prophet Isaiah hundreds of years before Jesus left heaven to be born on this earth as a human baby!