INTRODUCTION
A competition has just been announced at the school. It's going to be like one
of those games on the television where you have to build something in a short
space of time and the one who builds it best wins loads of money. You and your
friends decided to have a go, but you don't think you'll be very good at it (there
are a couple of teams from another class that are sure they'll do much better).
At least you'll be given instructions, so maybe you'll have a chance after all.
On the day of the competition, you're quite nervous. There are four teams in all
and the first challenge is to make a fun-run for a hamster. It's surprisingly
hard work and in the end you are delighted, and rather surprised, to find that
your team has gone through to the finals.
Now the pressure is really on. Both teams have to build an escape-proof adventure
playground for a lively kitten - in twenty minutes! The whistle blows and the
other team dashes off. By the time you have laid out a well-glued base, they
have constructed an amazing palace from egg boxes and pieces of string with all
sorts of shiny bits swinging from the turrets. It all looks fairly hopeless for
you but you carry on anyway, carefully gluing the swing and scratching post. Three
minutes before the end, the other team have finished and are looking triumphant.
You are still checking the structures. It's only as the final gong sounds that
you stick the last piece in place.
And now for the test. Enter the kitten. She is put into the wonderful kitten palace.
She looks very happy - but suddenly you see a paw emerging under the ramparts,
then a little leg and suddenly - crash! The whole palace has collapsed. She's
through ... What will she do to your building? You hold your breath, but when
she arrives in your playground, scratch and push as she may, she can't get out.
In fact after a minute or two it's such fun she doesn't want to. You've won!
It was all worth the effort. Your team had its priorities right. In Storykeepers,
Ben tells a story rather like this...
KEY VIDEO CLIP
Episode 5b: Sink or Swim
PRAYER
Jesus taught us that if we get our priorities right and build our lives on a solid
foundation, we will be able to ride out all the storms that life may throw at
us. Help us to know what we need to do, to have the will to do it and to have
faith that we are safe in the hands of God.
MUSIC
'God has Promised' No.31 in The Complete Come and Praise
BBC, 1990
ISBN 0 563 345810
NOTES
In Storykeepers, this parable comes as part of a sequence about doing things,
rather than just talking about them. The secure foundation of the house is a symbol
for the solid base of faith on which the Christians build their lives. Ben the
baker is himself seen as someone who not only tells the stories of Jesus but who
lives them out in his own life.
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