Steps and Leaps

His new home was fantastic. Ernie could spend hours exploring the vast green expanse behind the immense white house. On this particular day, he found himself at water's edge. It was as calm as a mirror. He found a tatter of a leaf and maneuvered it on to the water, breaking the mirror with gentle ripples. He lay on his stomach, head down on the leaf as he clutched the top of the leaf with his tiny hands. Then with all his might he kicked his powerful frog legs to propel his boat to adventure.

Swish. The front of the leaf ran aground and for the first time since cast off, Ernie lifted his eyes from his leafy boat. Slowly at first, then with wonder and delight Ernie surveyed his island. His island, his paradise. Never had he seen anything quite so beautiful, and it was all his. Such a sparkle the white stone of his island had. He quickly found the middle of the oasis and sprawled his gangly members as he lay on his back. There in the warm glow of the sun overhead, he thanked his Maker for his island and fell asleep.

Ernie woke with a start. The island shook just for a moment, but it surely shook. Then, still on his back ,limbs in the air, Ernie slowly looked up. There towering above him was one of the children. Looking down at Ernie, she began to laugh.

"You look so happy here on this stepping stone," she said, "but there are much more beautiful things in the garden on the other side of the pond."

With that she picked him up and carried him across the rest of the stepping stones. Ernie couldn't believe his eyes!

Grace in the Journey

Ernie dodged another falling coconut, hopping this time high into the air. He hoped to catch a hold of a large banana tree leaf that was hanging limp on a fallen tree. The wind was intense and carried coconuts, sand, razor sharp banana stalks and great peril for any small tree frog who found himself out on this stormy day. Moments earlier the skies were blue but suddenly a tropical storm bellowed. Now crimson dusk was as black as night.

Ernie raced as fast as he could to the top of the fallen tree. Jumping as far as his little legs would throw him, he was caught by the wind and carried several hundred feet. With a hollow thud, his body hit a tree trunk. His wet, bruised body clung to the sickly tree. It was thin and shook easily. Only ten small leaves hung limply at the top. Such a pitiful tree offered Ernie little protection, but his small green body hurt to much to try to jump again. He clung to the tree with his last ounces of courage and looking to the starless sky cried out to his creator.

"Why!?"

The one word was all he could say for the tree was violently tossed. Back and back still until he was sure the leaves could touch the mud. Then in another gust the wind would send the tree headlong so far that Ernie almost couldn't hold onto the tree. Then... Snap.

Warmth covered Ernie's sore body. His eyes opened to a stream of light filtering through tattered leaves. When he looked at his surroundings, he saw a mountainous wall and on his other side a tremendous white house. Then coming toward him were some small children with laughing faces. Looking back at the tree he clung to, he saw why.

Spending time at the store

Mr. Cooper's little grocery store wasn't far, and Chris Buzzworth always walked down there every day to get the freshest ingredients for his restaurant.

Chris and Mr. Cooper were best friends and he loved to shop there, but over time, Christ started getting lazy. He added about 23 new items to the menu and was so busy sitting on the couch thinking, he didn't go down to the store very much anymore. The times he did go, he didn't feel like carrying so much, so he bought less.

After awhile Chris started to wonder why his customers stopped coming.

Real food

Buzz had just hit the mother load. There was a lot of nectar, a lot of flowers and few bees. He got a load of nectar and flew it back to the hive.

His friends at the hive loved to have fun. Most bees work themselves so hard that they die, but these like to play more than anything. At this time the hive was all abuzz because there was a party going on. There was splishing and a splashing, moving and a grooving. All this celebration - even though the nectar supply was running really low.

When Buzz got to the hive, he quickly flew in and started the butt waggle dance. That is supposed to tell the others where the food is, how good it is and how far away it is. He started passing out samples, but no one accepted it. They all wanted to drink Pepsi instead. He was in the middle of a huge group of bees. He was getting pushed from every direction while his mouth was full of nectar. Bee after bee hit him back and forth while they danced. Soon the nectar was forced from his cheeks. No one would listen no matter how hard he tried.

After he had passed out all the samples and had done the butt waggle dance, all the bees left. Maybe some of the bees went to get nectar, but most just went to play tag.