Gospel for God’s Children by Linda Shields:
It's spring time on the farm. In the spring the animals are busier than the other three seasons. In the hot
summer time they lie in the shade of the trees, quietly trying to stay cool. In the fall and cold winter they stay sheltered to try and stay warm. But in the spring time, our ducks are busy. The hens have to find the ideal place to lay their eggs. Grandpa and I find duck nests under the back porch steps, tucked under growing vines, even in large planting pots and behind Great Grandma's yellow rose bush beside the garage. We
permit the hens to use these spots to settle in to hatch their young, but there is one place where they are not permitted and that is in Mama Cat's little house on the back porch. Yet every spring, we see Mama cat either
lying in her house on top of a bunch of duck eggs or she is forced out of her house by a determined duck who has become a squatter in her house while she was out on a hunt.
Grandpa has made enemies with little brown duck as daily he checks Mama Cat’s house and sure enough finds Brown's eggs tucked in the plush bed. Little brown duck saw him toss out her eggs and she squawked at him. She jumped up on the rail of the porch still squawking at him. Little brown duck jumped down on the container under the porch where the cracked corn is stored and believe it or not, glared at Grandpa. He said, "she stared daggers at me.”
Since then, Grandpa has caught her on the porch waddling towards Mama Cat’s house, and when she sees that Grandpa has spotted her, she stops in her tracks, then flies off the porch.
Little brown duck knows she is doing wrong, (she proves that when she sees Grandpa, stops and flies away) yet she has continued to try and take over Mama Cat’s house.
Sometimes we act the same way. We are told not to do something, yet we do that something anyway. We
don't really intend to do wrong, but we give in to temptation.
This has been happening since the beginning of time. In the Garden of Eden, God told Adam and Eve not to eat of the fruit from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Eve forgot about God's goodness and listened to Satan's lie rather than God's warning, and we know the rest of the story. Sin entered the world, along with trouble, sorrow and death.
But our loving and forgiving God did not leave us to our misery, brought on by our own disobedience. He did not abandon us or forsake us, but promised He would never leave us. Matthew 28: 20b - "And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
When we do wrong, God said He is "faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanses us from all
unrighteousness." What a wonderful God we have.
So when we act like little brown duck, and do what we know is wrong, let us remember to be sorry, ask God to
forgive us and give us guidance to do what is pleasing in His sight. After all He is always with us, and that is very comforting to know.
Please read Genesis 3, Psalms 32:1-2, and 1 John 1:9 with the children.