Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: CANDY (04/28/16)
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TITLE: Astronaut Ice Cream | Previous Challenge Entry
By Jeremy Kirby
05/05/16 -
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Thomas was extremely nervous even though his part as a shepherd was not that big. His grandmother who was the writer of the play, the seamstress and also the director, noticed his dread. Looking down at his anxious hands, she wisely grabbed his attention. “Tom come here a minute.” She led him to a large box sitting on the front pew. As he looked in his eyes grew wide. There was an assortment of root beer barrels, cinnamon drops, jawbreakers, the square cream-filled Christmas candies and many other delicacies that he could not name. She promised him his own bag at the end of the night as long as he pushed through his fear and did his best in the play.
With a red face, sweaty forehead and hands still fidgety he slowly moved about the stage. The audience looked on, entranced, and at the end of the performance applauded loudly. Thomas, alongside the rest of the cast, bowed and then took his seat. Of course he sat right next to his grandmother and the candy! As she honored her promise she told him, “See? Candy can help you do anything, but Jesus is the sweetest thing we know.”
-Many years later-
Thomas with a strained back plopped down on the mossy forest floor. “Dad what are ya doing?” his son called.
“I made it to the top of the hill so I’m taking a break!”
Brian climbed up and sat next to his gray haired father. “Sorry Dad I didn’t find any morels either.”
“Ah that’s okay; probably the weather has been too cool. Speaking of cool how’s your pretty young wife? She hasn’t been coming with you to visit.”
There was a silence. The hesitation whispered that there was more happening than what Brian had told his father.
“I don’t know Dad, it isn’t the same anymore. Honestly, we were in love but it just doesn’t feel like we are now. She does her thing and I do mine, we eat dinner in front of the TV and then stare at our phones the rest of the night with hardly a word.”
“I know you stopped teaching Sunday school because of work schedules. Brian, are you still going to church as a family?”
Brian again answered hesitantly, “Only about twice a year.”
Looking at the ground for a moment, gathering as much wisdom as he could, Thomas opened his backpack and pulled out a dehydrated ice cream sandwich. Brian’s eyes lit up as he watched his dad.
“I haven’t eaten one of those since our hiking trips when I was a kid!” he exclaimed.
Thomas spoke, “Your great grandma told me once that with the help of candy I could do anything. Not long after that I found out about these beauties at the nature center gift shop. As I took my first bite dreams of flying to outer space filled my mind. But you see I had a problem, I really didn’t think I could do anything. So certainly I could not make it to Heaven by going to church and doing everything right. My plan was to eat lots of Astronaut Ice Cream and build a spaceship that could travel fast enough to make it to Heaven and break the force shield that was keeping me out. That way I wouldn’t have to do everything right!”
Brian chuckled at his father’s story.
“It is funny to think such a thing but you see Jesus is the only way you can overcome,” Thomas explained.
“I learned that a spaceship couldn’t take me to Heaven, but Jesus could. In the same way you need to learn that by your own strength, you cannot fix your marriage. Put Him in the center of it. Position Jesus in between you and your wife and He will bring you together. When times are bumpy, He will lift you up. Jesus is the Astronaut Ice Cream that will give you the energy and confidence to fly to the stars.”
Thomas handed the ice cream to his son. Brian looked at it for a moment and finally took it. With a tear in his eye he said, “I guess it’s time to fly.”
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I loved it.
Blessings~