A Children’s Story for all Ages
– by david
Once upon a time, on a puffy cloud way up in heaven, God and the devil sat talking. Back then, God and the devil were great friends. The devil was actually God’s Number 1 Angel. Well, this would have been a great day for sitting or bouncing on the puffy cloud except for one thing: The smelly smoke! Somebody had made a mistake – and it was a Big One!
The devil had convinced God that he was strong and wise enough to create the earth. Well, God, being so nice, told him he could try. But the devil wasn’t as perfect as God was, and he messed up. So God and the devil sat on the edge of the puffy cloud looking down at a giant, smoky ball of fiery rock that the devil had made. The devil had really goofed. And God started to laugh. He laughed loud ,and He laughed long, until he saw that He had hurt the devil’s feelings and made him angry. So He stopped laughing and said, “Devil, my friend, don’t you worry because I will fix it for you.”
It took God 6 days to fix that mess, but it was well worth it. When He had finished the earth was beautiful and full of animals, plants and people. The people! God was especially excited about them. He made them like an itty-bitty God (sort of like the Angels), and He loved them very much. But, it hadn’t been easy, and after six days of hard work, God needed a nap. So He laid down in the puffy cloud and went to sleep.
Now the devil went to work. He was really, really mad because God had laughed at him. Well, God hadn’t meant it bad, He just liked to laugh… He was just a happy God! The devil had always been kinda grumpy and mean though, so he took it wrong. He went to the other side of the puffy cloud and started messing with God’s new earth. He made tornadoes and hurricanes and earthquakes and did all sorts of mischief.
About this time God woke up. And when He turned and saw what the devil had done – He was furious! He stomped over to the devil, and every time His foot came down, heaven shook. Lightening bolts were shooting from His fingers, and bouncing all over the place. I think one even hit a little angel on the bottom, because that angel jumped up in the air holding his backside and Squeeeled loudly! All of the other Angels flew for cover!
Then God reached out and grabbed the devil by his robe. He grabbed the devil so hard that the devil’s Halo got knocked off and landed on the puffy cloud. (The Halo, a bright, round shiny ring of light over an angels head was what gave the angels their power to fly.) And God was so angry at the devil for hurting the people of the earth that he pushed him off the puffy cloud and out of heaven. And he shouted, “Don’t come back!”
Ooooops! God looked over the edge of the puffy cloud and sure enough, the devil was falling and heading straight for earth. “Uh oh”, thought God, “those nice people down there are going to have lots of problems with that mean old devil.” Then God had an idea! “I’ll give the people of the earth my name to help fight that bad devil”, He cried! For everyone knew that God’s name was very Holy and powerful.
So God pulled His name out of His robe and tossed it over the side. But it floated back up! God’s name was so Holy that it floated! Looking around, God saw the devil’s Halo lying on the puffy cloud. He picked up the round “O” shaped halo and tied it in the middle of His name, kind of like an anchor. “This should weigh down my name and allow it to float down to the people of the earth”, said God to himself. And He tossed it over the side and His name began to float down towards the earth. “Blessed be the earth and the people of the earth”, He whispered. And then God cried, for He knew how hard it would be for the people of the earth to fight the devil. But now at least if they used His name they would have a chance.
Well, all this time the devil had been falling really fast towards the earth. He was starting to get scared because he knew it was going to hurt when he finally hit. (The devil was also a coward.) During this time, he looked up and saw God’s name above him floating gently down from above. The devil thought to himself and said, “I was an angel, therefore my name is Holy too, and should also float.” So hoping it would slow him down, he reached into his Robe and pulled his own name out and held it up over his head like a parachute… and nothing happened!!! He was still speeding down to earth. Desperate and crying , he ripped the big “D” off the front of his name in the hope that it would make his name lighter and it would float. The new word, “evil” was just as heavy, and was starting to get ugly too. What the devil didn’t know was that once he was separated from God and heaven, he was no longer beautiful and wonderful and holy. Even his name, which was now missing the “D”, was cold, hard, heavy and ugly!
Well, the devil was still zooming down to the earth….. and WHAM!!!! …. he smacked right into a volcano! He hit so hard that he went right through the bottom and into the fiery center of the earth. (Some people call that place “H.E.L.L.”, but shhhhh…. that is a word of bad power, so we never say it, we only spell it.)
By this time God was even angrier at the devil. It seems that all the floods, hurricanes and tornadoes that the devil had made were really hurting all of God’s people…. and God really loved His people! KABLAAAM!!! He zapped that volcano with the biggest lightening bolt ever! And ever since then the devil has been trapped in the fiery center of the earth.
But it wasn’t over yet! When the devil was falling into the volcano, his broken name, “evil” hit the side of the volcano and bounced out. And there it went –
rolling across the earth. His name rumbled and rolled slowly along and cast a big, dark shadow before it. And in the shadow of evil all sorts of bad things happened.
Now God’s name (with the Halo shaped like an “O” tied in the middle) had arrived and was floating gently over the earth bringing light and happiness and laughter and love. God’s name with the little Halo shaped like a circle “O” in the middle looked like “GOOD” to the people, and so they said that all of these things were good. And “GOOD” floated near “evil” and everywhere that GOOD’s light shone, the darkness of evil was burned up. And ever since then the light of GOOD has chased the dark of evil round and round the earth, creating day and night. And perhaps this is why they say that “evil rules the night”, and “GOODness rules the day!”
So now you know how Good and evil got their names, but I’m wondering something. Did you really notice what special thing happened to cause them to get their names as they did?
Well, to get “evil” from “Devil”, the devil had to take away the “D”. He had to destroy his name. So evil was formed by taking and destruction. God kept His name, but He added and gave to it and filled it up! GOD>>>GOOD. Why, He even made it Bigger!!!
And this is the moral of the story:
The next time you are around a kid that’s not being so nice, just remember: To make Good – you have to give something. I’m guessing right now that God is looking down right now from his favorite puffy cloud and saying, “Hey! How about giving a Big Smile and some nice words, like a cheerful “Hello”, or “Want to Be Friends?”” Think about it. Doesn’t a Big Smile and a Happy Hello make you feel Good?
So, Hello my New Friend!
– from david
(Will you share this with an old or new friend too?)