Once I told some preschoolers about Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32). I was trying to help the children understand that God is like the father who lovingly accepted his rebellious son back home and restored all of his privileges as his son.
But as I was explaining that the son had no place to live until he returned home, one boy blurted out, “Yeah, he didn’t have a house — he was like Tarzan living in the jungle.”
Al Fasol tells about a 3-year-old who was looking with her mother at pictures in an old family album. As her mother named the people in each picture, the child noticed that she, the 3-year-old, was missing. She asked, “Mommy, where am I in the picture?”
Her mother said, “You weren’t born yet.” They continued to look at pictures, and each time the little girl asked where she was, her mother would say, “You weren’t born yet.” Finally, the little girl became tired of this answer. “If I wasn’t born yet, then where was I?”
Her mother thought, and then said, “You were in heaven.” The girl answered, “Well I may have been in heaven then, but I’m sure not there now!”
How true. This world is not heaven. In fact, it can be a real jungle out there. As Jesus told his disciples, “You will have suffering in this world” (John 16:33, HCSB). That’s because this world is not our home, if we are believers in Christ. This is just a temporary stop before heaven.
No wonder Jesus went on to say. “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33, KJV).
(Copyright 2013 by Bob Rogers. Email: brogers@fbcrincon.com. Read this column each Friday in the Herald. Visit my blog at www.bobrogers.me.)
