The Oyster

An oyster on the
ocean floor
opened wide its
shell. As its valves
flushed seawater
through, the oyster
picked out minute
particles of food.
Suddenly a large
fish nearby stirred
up a cloud of sand
and silt with a flip
of its tail.
Sand! Oh, how the oyster disliked sand! It was so rough that it
made life very unpleasant for the oyster whenever any got inside
its shell.
Quickly the oyster slammed its shell shut, but it was too late. One
hard, gritty grain of sand had gotten in and become lodged
between the oyster's flesh and shell.
How that piece of sand bothered the oyster! But almost
immediately, special glands went to work, coating the irritating
grain of sand with a shiny, smooth covering.

Year after year the oyster added more layers, until at last it had
produced a beautiful, lustrous pearl of great value.
Our problems are like that grain of sand. They bother us, and
sometimes we wonder why we have to suffer the irritation and
inconvenience they can be. But God will work wonders with our
problems and weaknesses, if we will let Him.

This is Good!

The story is told of an African king and his close friend, who
had grown up together. The king's friend had a habit of looking at
every situation positively and remarking, "This is good!"
One day the king went on a hunting expedition, and he gave
his friend the job of loading his guns and handing them to him.
Apparently the friend did something wrong at some point,
because one gun misfired and blew the king's thumb off.
"This is good!" the king's friend remarked as usual.
"No, this is not good!" the king replied, and he sent his friend
to jail.

About a year later, the king was hunting in an area that he

shouldn't have ventured into. Cannibals captured him and took
him to their village. They tied his hands, bound him to a stake in
the ground, and stacked firewood around his feet. However, just as
they were about to set fire to the wood, they noticed that the king
was missing a thumb. The cannibals had a superstition that forbad
them from eating anyone who was less than whole, so they untied
the king and sent him on his way.
As the king traveled home, he was reminded of the event that
had taken his thumb, and he regretted the way he had treated his
friend. He went straight to the jail and released his friend.
"You were right," the king said. "It was good that my thumb was
blown off." And he proceeded to tell his friend about his brush
with death. "I am sorry for sending you to jail for so long," he said.
"That was very bad of me!"
"No," his friend replied, "this is good!"
"What do you mean, 'This is good'? How could it be good that I
sent my friend to jail for a year?"
"If I had not been in jail," the king's friend replied, "I would have
been with you."

Rainbows from Rain

Look at all the men and women
throughout history who rose above
seemingly insurmountable odds to
become great. They had to fight
harder to overcome those obstacles,
but in so doing they became stronger.
Instead of complaining that life had
given them a "lemon," a bad deal,
they "made lemonade out of their
lemons." Because of their supposed
handicaps, they rose higher than they
would have otherwise.
Beethoven was stone deaf when he
composed some of the most beautiful
music ever written, and Thomas
Edison was deaf when he invented
the phonograph. Alexander the Great
was a hunchback. Homer was a blind
minstrel. Renoir painted some of his
finest masterpieces when his fingers
were so twisted by rheumatism that
his artist's brush had to be strapped
to his hand. Handel's right side was
paralyzed when he composed his
greatest work, "The Hallelujah
Chorus!"

If Helen Keller hadn't been blind

and deaf from infancy, she
never would have had the
opportunity to become the
inspiration that she was and
continues to be to millions, and
she never could have said, "I
thank God for my handicaps, for
through them I have found
myself, my work, and my God.
Booker T. Washington was born
a slave and worked in coal
mines and salt mines before
becoming an educator, a
spokesman for African American
causes, and founder of a college
for young African Americans.
Jerome K. Jerome lost his father
when he was 12. At 14 he had
to go to work to support his
mother and sister. His life got
even harder when his mother
also died, but eventually Jerome
became a writer, not of sad
stories but of humor. After such
a hard beginning in life, he said,
"It is from the struggle, not the
victory, that we gain strength."

Greater Ends
In The Horse and His Boy, one of the seven novels in C. S.
Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia series, a boy named Shasta
dreams of traveling to the unknown north, which turns out to
include the magical land of Narnia. One night Shasta overhears the
fisherman he has been led to believe is his father sell him to a
noble from a neighboring kingdom. (We find out much later that
Shasta had been shipwrecked as a baby and was found by the
fisherman.) As Shasta awaits his new master in the stable, he is
surprised to find out that the noble's stallion, Bree, is a talking
horse from Narnia. Bree explains that he was kidnapped as a foal
and sold as a warhorse, and suggests that they escape together.
Their journey north is long and perilous, and they have several
encounters with lions along the way.
During the first, Shasta and Bree meet two others who are
trying to escape to NarniaAravis, a young aristocrat who is being
pressured into marrying an unsavory character, and her talking
mare, Hwin, who was also kidnapped from Narnia. The four decide
to travel together.

When Shasta is separated from the others, he arrives first at

their prearranged meeting place and must spend the night alone
at the spooky ancient tombs. He is awakened by a rustling in the
brush, but it is only a cat, who settles in at Shasta's side. When
Shasta is awakened again by the cry of jackals, followed by the
terrifying roar of a lion, he opens his eyes and is relieved to find
only the cat.
After meeting up and learning of a plot by evildoers to invade
Archenland, a small kingdom that borders Narnia, and then
conquer Narnia itself, the four are off to warn Archenland's King
Lune when another lion comes upon them. This causes the horses
to run even faster. The horses are exhausted, so Shasta leaves
them and Aravis in the care of a kindly hermit and runs on foot to
warn the king.
Shasta meets up with King Lune and his hunting party, delivers
the message, and heads off with them on a borrowed horse, but
gets separated in the fog. Lost and downcast, Shasta senses a
presence walking beside him in the darkness. Eventually the two
get into a conversation, and Shasta recounts what he sees as his
many misfortunes, including his recent encounters with lions. The
presence turns out to be Aslan, the "Great Lion" from the
other Narnia books, who reveals that he was the single lion Shasta
has encountered on his journey:

"I was the lion who forced you to

join with Aravis," Aslan tells Shasta.
"I was the cat who comforted you
among the tombs. I was the lion
who drove the jackals from you
while you slept. I was the lion who
gave the horses the new strength of
fear for the last mile so that you
should reach King Lune in time. And
I was the lion you do not remember
who pushed the [lifeboat] in which
you lay, a child near death, so it
came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive
you."
A golden light breaks through the fog, and Shasta turns to see
"pacing beside him, taller than the horse, a Lion. It was from the
Lion that the light came. No one ever saw anything more terrible or
beautiful."
Aslan vanishes, Shasta finds his way to Archenland, and King
Lune then recognizes him as his own son Cor, the long lost elder
twin of Prince Corin and therefore heir to the throne. Cor and
Aravis eventually marry. "And after King Lune's death they made a
good King and Queen of Archenland."
*
This children's fantasy contains some timeless truths: The difficulties
we face in life are not left to chance. God allows each one for a
specific purpose, all can ultimately work out for our good, and none
are too great for us to overcome with God's help. The "lions" that
we fear are actually our salvation, because without them we
wouldn't reach our destination; we'd never become the people God
wants us to be.

Bitter for Sweet

The sound of Mother's eggbeater drew me to the kitchen. There I
found her at work, and began to watch. This was my chance to
find out what she put into that chocolate cake of hers that made
it so good. There was baking chocolate, of course. I reached for a
crumb that had fallen off the bar and put it on my tongue to
dissolve. It was bitter!
I surveyed the other things on the table. There was a cupful of
sour milk. Yuck! Surely Mother wasn't going to put that in the
cake! But she did, along with some of that awful baking soda she
had given me the last time I had a stomachache. What kind of
cake could she possibly make out of such things? Mother smiled
and told me to wait and see.

She served the cake that evening after dinner. It looked as good as
usual, but I was going to be careful. I tasted a little crumb, then a
larger crumb, and finally a whole bite. It couldn't have been
better! I forgot all about the sour milk and baking soda, and asked
for another piece.
Life is not all sweetness. There is much that is bitter, and we often
cannot believe that anything good could come from it. Certainly
all things are not good, but "all things work together for good"
(Romans 8:28). This is God's promise to those who love Him. Day
by day He is making you what He wants you to be, and He never
puts anything into your life by mistake.

Points to Ponder:
Overcoming
Adversity
Smooth seas do not make skillful
sailors. African proverb
The good things of prosperity are to
be wished; but the good things that
belong to adversity are to be
admired. Seneca (4 bc65 ad)
'Tis easy enough to be pleasant,
When life flows like a song.
But the man worthwhile
Is the one who will smile
When everything goes dead wrong.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919)
Reflect upon your blessings, of which
every man has plenty, not on your
past misfortunes, of which all men
have some. Charles Dickens (18121870)
Troubles are often the tools by which
God fashions us for better things.
Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887)

Image credits:
Cover: Xoan Baltar via Flickr
Page 1: Nashworld via Flickr
Page 2: Satendra Mhatre via FreeImages.com
Page 3 & 4: Africa/freedigitalphotos.net
Page 5: Thomas Edison painting by ettorebechis via Flickr; other images in public domain
Page 6: Hellen Keller by Cherry Crimson via Flickr; Jerome K. Jerome courtesy of Wikipedia;
Booker T. Washington photo in public domain
Page 7: Image designed by Freepik
Page 8: public domain
Page 9: Dave McClure via Flickr
Page 10: Daniel Case via Wikipedia
Page 11: Karen Neoh via Flickr
Page 12: Susana Fairlie via Flickr, Joeduty via Flickr & Jer Kunz via Flickr
Page 13: Jennifer Phoon via Flickr

www.freekidstories.org
Text courtesy of Activated! Magazine; used by permission.