Children’s Time 10 31 99
Are any of you afraid of the water? I’m just like Emily and Mary in the story. I’m afraid of the deep end of the pool. Twelve feet is real deep! Since I’m less than 6 feet, it’s twice as tall as I am. Ben in the story believes that if only Emily and Mary prayed about their fears, then they won’t be afraid again. Do you believe that?
There’s a story in the Bible about Peter being afraid of the water. Do any of you know that story? Jesus told the disciples to get in a boat to go over to the other side. But then Jesus decided to pray up in a mountain. By the time Jesus came back down to the beach to find the disciples, a wind had blown through and now the boat is way off shore. By now, it was morning, so Jesus, because he’s Jesus, started walking on the sea toward the boat.
When the disciples saw Jesus, they said, “It’s a ghost!” This is not like the ghost costumes you wore in Halloween. They thought Jesus was like an angel.
Peter was testing Jesus because he couldn’t believe his eyes. So he told Jesus, if it is really you then let me walk on the water and come toward you. Amazingly, Peter was doing this until another big wind came by and he became afraid. He started sinking. Peter yelled out, “Lord, save me!” And Jesus immediately reached out his hand and grabbed Peter.
The story about Jesus and Peter is about having enough faith. Ben was telling Emily and Mary to have faith in praying. There are things in life that get easier because we pray to God about them. When we have faith in things that we don’t see and still believe, then our faith is getting stronger.
Today is Halloween. How many of you have gone trick or treating already? Well, you just can’t have Halloween or all souls day without some candy. So, here’s a tootsie roll pop for each of you. Tootsie roll pops are a faith candy. When you had one for the first time, you didn’t know that there’s a tootsie roll middle until you get to it. But you believed that it’s there so you lick it until you get to it.
Let’s keep on praying and praying so that our faith will grow stronger and stronger everyday.
Let’s pray.