SermonStudio

There was once a little boy whose most prized possession was a light blue cat's-eye crystal marble. "Big Blue," as he called it, sparkled in the sunlight like a raindrop and glistened in the moonlight like a diamond. The little boy always carried it in his pocket so he could rub it for good luck. Sometimes he would take Big Blue out and show it to his friends, but most often he played with it by himself on lazy summer afternoons as he hiked along the beach when there was nothing else to do.

One Saturday morning, the little boy was playing with Big Blue on the beach. He rolled the marble down toward the breaking waves to see how close he could come without getting it wet. Suddenly one of the biggest boys in the neighborhood appeared, as if out of nowhere, grabbed up the marble and ran off with it as fast as he could. The little boy chased after him but the big boy was much too fast for him.

The little boy was so shaken he didn't know what to do. His parents had warned him about playing alone on the beach. What would they say now, when they found out he had disobeyed them? He couldn't bring himself to tell them, and he didn't know of anyone else he could trust.

Months passed and the little boy still had not told a soul about what had happened to him on the beach. Then he had an idea. The little boy knew exactly what he had to do.

He went to the big boy's house, ran up the front steps, marched across the porch and rang the doorbell. The big boy's mama opened the door. "What do you want?" she asked in a harsh voice.

"I want my big blue marble back," the little boy said. "Your son took it from me and I want it back!"

"I don't know what you're talking about," the big boy's mama said. "My boy would never do anything like that! You get away from here and don't come back." With that, she slammed the door with a big bang.

The little boy sat down on the last step and thought about what he should do next. After a while, something inside him seemed to say, "Go ask her again. Keep asking until you get what belongs to you." So the little boy got up and knocked on the door again. When the big boy's mama saw him, she closed the curtains and shouted for him to go away.

The little boy did go away, but in a half-hour he was back again, carrying a white sign nailed to a narrow board. On the sign, in large blue letters, he had printed, "GIVE ME BACK MY MARBLE!" The little boy began to march up and down in front of the big boy's house, holding the sign up high and shouting at the top of his voice, "Give me back my marble! Give me back my marble!"

Soon there was a large crowd gathered in front of the big boy's house. A van from the television station rolled up and some people got out and began to film the little boy's small demonstration. A woman with a microphone interviewed the little boy. He told how the big boy had taken his marble and that he had come to his house to get it back.

About an hour after the interview had been broadcast on the nightly news, several other little boys arrived. They said the big boy had stolen their marbles, too. Then, one by one, they all fell in line behind the little boy as he marched back and forth in front of the big boy's house. They held up signs, too, and they joined the little boy, shouting at the tops of their voices: "Give us back our marbles! Give us back our marbles!"

Suddenly the door opened and the big boy's mama appeared on the porch with a bag of candy. "Come, sit down," she said, "have some candy. We can work this thing out without so much fuss." The little boys stopped shouting and they put down their signs, but they didn't take any of the candy.

The big boy's mama said, "Let's be reasonable about this. Here's a dollar for each of you. Now, go to the store and buy yourselves some more marbles and don't bother us anymore."

Not one of the little boys spoke a word. They simply turned their backs on the big boy's mama, lifted up their signs and began to march all the way around the house, shouting at the tops of their voices, "Give us back our marbles! Give us back our marbles!" They marched and shouted and shouted and marched and marched and shouted until it was dark. Then they all went home and went to bed. The next morning, right after breakfast, they were all back again marching and shouting at the tops of their voices, "Give us back our marbles! Give us back our marbles."

This went on for several days until at last the door opened again and the big boy's mama came out and said in a nasty voice, "Here, take your stinking marbles." Then she spat on each one and rolled them all into the ash pile on the end of the porch. The little boys ceased their shouting, put down their signs and walked slowly and sadly over to the ash heap to retrieve their soiled marbles.

The little boy was the last to find his beloved Big Blue. It was so dirty he could hardly see any blue at all and the sparkle was nowhere to be seen. The little boy walked down to the beach and dipped Big Blue into the waves. Then he wiped it on his shirt and held it up to be warmed by the sun. The little boy's face lit up into a great smile as he saw Big Blue catch the rays of the sun and begin to sparkle like a raindrop. "I got Big Blue back, I got Big Blue back!" he shouted over and over again as he held the marble up in the sun and ran along the beach as fast as his legs could run.