Building in Love
Stories
Contents
"Building in Love" by Peter Andrew Smith
"A Prophet Whether You Like it Or Not" by Frank Ramirez
Building in Love
by Peter Andrew Smith
1 Corinthians 8:1-13
John slammed the door and stormed into the kitchen. He threw his book bag into the corner and flopped down in a kitchen chair. His grandmother looked up from her recipe box.
“Did you have a bad day at school?”
“The worst.” John folded his arms. “I hate school.”
“Really? Usually you like school.”
“Not anymore. I don’t want to ever go again.”
She closed the box and sat down in the chair beside him. “Why is that?”
“Today was stupid.”
“What do you mean?”
“School is a waste of my time.”
“John,” she said, “I think you need to tell me what happened at school so I can understand why you’re so upset.”
“We spent the whole afternoon making cards for Valentine’s Day.” John shook his head. “I mean I’m in Grade 2. I know how to cut out shapes and print. I was bored the whole time. We should’ve been doing something I don’t know how to do. You know, learning things.”
“Why were you making cards?”
“I don’t know, something about us going downtown on a field trip. O yeah, get this. They had us practice some songs we learned last year in first grade. We already knew them.” John threw up his hands. “I’m not learning anything this year at school.”
His grandmother rubbed her chin. “Really?”
“Absolutely. I mean can you imagine anything worse than having to do things you already know how to do again and again?”
“Yes, I can but that’s beside the point.” She tilted her head. “What are you going to do with the cards you made and the songs that you practiced?”
John shrugged. “Who cares? I already know how to do all that stuff.”
“Do you perhaps have a permission slip from the school I should see?”
“Yeah, Mrs. Kingston gave us something.” John dug through his book bag and handed his grandmother a piece of paper. “Maybe I should stay home from school that day.”
His grandmother looked at the piece of paper. “No, I think you should go.”
“Why? I know everything we’re going to do on the field trip.”
“This paper says that you’re going to the nursing home to spend some time with the residents.”
“Yeah, we’re going to give them cards and sing songs for them. Who cares?”
“I suspect the people there will,” his grandmother said.
“That’s not what school is for though. Church is about helping people. School is for learning things I don’t already know.”
“Really? Are you sure?”
John paused and then nodded. “I’m pretty sure.”
“Don’t you learn things in church?”
“Okay maybe I do learn things in church too. That doesn’t change the fact that doing things I already know how to do in school is just stupid.”
“Really? Are you sure?”
“That’s the second time you’ve asked that.” John narrowed his eyes. “Am I missing something?”
“Do you think I already know how to make cookies?” she asked.
“Sure.”
“Then I suppose it would be stupid for me to make them anymore, right?”
John frowned. “But I like cookies.”
“Yes, you do. Are you getting my point yet?”
“You want me to do something that I know how to do in order to make someone else happy.” John tapped his chin. “I still don’t think that’s what school is about. School is about learning.”
“Who do you suppose is in that nursing home?”
John shrugged.
“Then perhaps when you go to deliver your cards and sing songs with your class you’ll discover something you don’t already know.” His grandmother got a pen, signed the piece of paper, and handed it back to John. “And even if you don’t the time will still be well spent.”
John took the paper and put it into his book bag. “Why do you say that?”
“Three good reasons.” His grandmother started counting on her fingers. “First because you’ll be helping brighten someone else’s day, second because you’ll be using your gifts and skills in a new way, and third because you’ll be caring for others like Jesus cares for us. Never forget that when we do things in love it builds up another person.”
John sighed. “I suppose if it’s what Jesus would want me to do that I could do it.”
“I suppose you could.” His grandmother hugged him. “Now go and do some homework so I can get back to my baking.”
“Are you making cookies?” John asked.
“I’m making cookies,” she replied with a nod. “Not because I know how to make them already but because I know how much you like them.”
* * *
A Prophet Whether You Like it Or Not
by Frank Ramirez
Deuteronomy 18:15-20
Occasionally great ideas bubble to the surface. It just seems to be the right time. It can be very hard to determine just who was the inventor of a great idea because it seems like everyone’s on to it.
Still, it’s not always enough to have a great idea -- it takes an ever greater mind to think of an application for it that occurred to no one else.
Hans Lippershey, a Dutch lens maker, is often given credit for inventing the telescope. In 1608 he applied for the patent for the instrument. Some say he got the idea from watching children in his shop hold two lenses in different hands at various distances until they were able to see objects in the distance magnified with clarity! Perhaps he simply discovered this himself.
However, this is all complicated by the fact that Zacharius Jansen, who lived in the same town in the Netherlands as Lippershey, also claimed to have invented the telescope and made the further claim that Lippershey stole the idea from him. In addition, another Dutchman, Jacob Metius, also applied for a patent for the telescope only a few months later.
The government of the Netherlands seems to have given small rewards for the discovery to the other two, but gave both credit and a large reward to Lippershey. Historians and scientists today believe that each inventor made their own contributions to the idea of the telescope and that they all more or less discovered it independently at the same time.
The navigational, military, and observational possibilities occurred to many people immediately. You could see ships and armies from far off. Those on board ship could see coastlines from a great distance. Details of matters a good deal away could be made clear.
Galileo Galilei heard about the invention and in 1609 built a better one, and was handsomely rewarded by the Venetian Senate for his innovation. Galileo is given credit for being the first to point the telescope towards the heavens. He discovered there were craters pockmarking the lunar landscape. He discovered mountains and valleys on the moon, a landscape that showed it was a real world. He looked towards Jupiter and discovered that there were four moons orbiting it. He tracked their movements from night to night.
Further complicating matters, Thomas Harriot of England also turned a telescope towards the moon, and mapped its mountains and craters in August 1609, perhaps earlier than Galileo. These observations were not published at the time, so Galileo is given credit for being first to observe the heavens with a telescope.
Whether or not Galileo was the first to point a telescope to the heavens, what truly made him a prophet for the truth was his groundbreaking assertion that his observations proved that Polish astronomer Copernicus was right. The earth was not the center of the solar system. The earth and the planets revolved around the sun.
Galileo saw that Venus had waxing and waning phases just like the moon does from our sky. This observation, among others, convinced him that Venus was circling the sun and that the phases reflected its place in its orbit around the sun, just as the moon's phases show where it is in relationship to the Earth. Some European church authorities believed these observations were blasphemous, because they pushed the Earth out of the center of the universe, and somehow they believed this pushed God out of the center of the universe as well.
In actuality they were promoting the cosmic view of some of the ancient Greek astronomers. As a result this assertion ultimately put Galileo's life in jeopardy. He was taken before the Inquisition, shown the instruments of torture, and forced to recant his scientific observations under threat of torture and death. He was kept under house arrest until his death.
It is said by some that as he was released he muttered the words "eppur si muove," Italian for "And yet it moves," referring to the fact that Venus still moved around the sun, and that the truth about the universe doesn't change even if the prophet is threatened with death. Ultimately this truth from a scientific prophet was heeded.
*****************************************
StoryShare, January 28, 2018, issue.
Copyright 2017 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
"Building in Love" by Peter Andrew Smith
"A Prophet Whether You Like it Or Not" by Frank Ramirez
Building in Love
by Peter Andrew Smith
1 Corinthians 8:1-13
John slammed the door and stormed into the kitchen. He threw his book bag into the corner and flopped down in a kitchen chair. His grandmother looked up from her recipe box.
“Did you have a bad day at school?”
“The worst.” John folded his arms. “I hate school.”
“Really? Usually you like school.”
“Not anymore. I don’t want to ever go again.”
She closed the box and sat down in the chair beside him. “Why is that?”
“Today was stupid.”
“What do you mean?”
“School is a waste of my time.”
“John,” she said, “I think you need to tell me what happened at school so I can understand why you’re so upset.”
“We spent the whole afternoon making cards for Valentine’s Day.” John shook his head. “I mean I’m in Grade 2. I know how to cut out shapes and print. I was bored the whole time. We should’ve been doing something I don’t know how to do. You know, learning things.”
“Why were you making cards?”
“I don’t know, something about us going downtown on a field trip. O yeah, get this. They had us practice some songs we learned last year in first grade. We already knew them.” John threw up his hands. “I’m not learning anything this year at school.”
His grandmother rubbed her chin. “Really?”
“Absolutely. I mean can you imagine anything worse than having to do things you already know how to do again and again?”
“Yes, I can but that’s beside the point.” She tilted her head. “What are you going to do with the cards you made and the songs that you practiced?”
John shrugged. “Who cares? I already know how to do all that stuff.”
“Do you perhaps have a permission slip from the school I should see?”
“Yeah, Mrs. Kingston gave us something.” John dug through his book bag and handed his grandmother a piece of paper. “Maybe I should stay home from school that day.”
His grandmother looked at the piece of paper. “No, I think you should go.”
“Why? I know everything we’re going to do on the field trip.”
“This paper says that you’re going to the nursing home to spend some time with the residents.”
“Yeah, we’re going to give them cards and sing songs for them. Who cares?”
“I suspect the people there will,” his grandmother said.
“That’s not what school is for though. Church is about helping people. School is for learning things I don’t already know.”
“Really? Are you sure?”
John paused and then nodded. “I’m pretty sure.”
“Don’t you learn things in church?”
“Okay maybe I do learn things in church too. That doesn’t change the fact that doing things I already know how to do in school is just stupid.”
“Really? Are you sure?”
“That’s the second time you’ve asked that.” John narrowed his eyes. “Am I missing something?”
“Do you think I already know how to make cookies?” she asked.
“Sure.”
“Then I suppose it would be stupid for me to make them anymore, right?”
John frowned. “But I like cookies.”
“Yes, you do. Are you getting my point yet?”
“You want me to do something that I know how to do in order to make someone else happy.” John tapped his chin. “I still don’t think that’s what school is about. School is about learning.”
“Who do you suppose is in that nursing home?”
John shrugged.
“Then perhaps when you go to deliver your cards and sing songs with your class you’ll discover something you don’t already know.” His grandmother got a pen, signed the piece of paper, and handed it back to John. “And even if you don’t the time will still be well spent.”
John took the paper and put it into his book bag. “Why do you say that?”
“Three good reasons.” His grandmother started counting on her fingers. “First because you’ll be helping brighten someone else’s day, second because you’ll be using your gifts and skills in a new way, and third because you’ll be caring for others like Jesus cares for us. Never forget that when we do things in love it builds up another person.”
John sighed. “I suppose if it’s what Jesus would want me to do that I could do it.”
“I suppose you could.” His grandmother hugged him. “Now go and do some homework so I can get back to my baking.”
“Are you making cookies?” John asked.
“I’m making cookies,” she replied with a nod. “Not because I know how to make them already but because I know how much you like them.”
* * *
A Prophet Whether You Like it Or Not
by Frank Ramirez
Deuteronomy 18:15-20
Occasionally great ideas bubble to the surface. It just seems to be the right time. It can be very hard to determine just who was the inventor of a great idea because it seems like everyone’s on to it.
Still, it’s not always enough to have a great idea -- it takes an ever greater mind to think of an application for it that occurred to no one else.
Hans Lippershey, a Dutch lens maker, is often given credit for inventing the telescope. In 1608 he applied for the patent for the instrument. Some say he got the idea from watching children in his shop hold two lenses in different hands at various distances until they were able to see objects in the distance magnified with clarity! Perhaps he simply discovered this himself.
However, this is all complicated by the fact that Zacharius Jansen, who lived in the same town in the Netherlands as Lippershey, also claimed to have invented the telescope and made the further claim that Lippershey stole the idea from him. In addition, another Dutchman, Jacob Metius, also applied for a patent for the telescope only a few months later.
The government of the Netherlands seems to have given small rewards for the discovery to the other two, but gave both credit and a large reward to Lippershey. Historians and scientists today believe that each inventor made their own contributions to the idea of the telescope and that they all more or less discovered it independently at the same time.
The navigational, military, and observational possibilities occurred to many people immediately. You could see ships and armies from far off. Those on board ship could see coastlines from a great distance. Details of matters a good deal away could be made clear.
Galileo Galilei heard about the invention and in 1609 built a better one, and was handsomely rewarded by the Venetian Senate for his innovation. Galileo is given credit for being the first to point the telescope towards the heavens. He discovered there were craters pockmarking the lunar landscape. He discovered mountains and valleys on the moon, a landscape that showed it was a real world. He looked towards Jupiter and discovered that there were four moons orbiting it. He tracked their movements from night to night.
Further complicating matters, Thomas Harriot of England also turned a telescope towards the moon, and mapped its mountains and craters in August 1609, perhaps earlier than Galileo. These observations were not published at the time, so Galileo is given credit for being first to observe the heavens with a telescope.
Whether or not Galileo was the first to point a telescope to the heavens, what truly made him a prophet for the truth was his groundbreaking assertion that his observations proved that Polish astronomer Copernicus was right. The earth was not the center of the solar system. The earth and the planets revolved around the sun.
Galileo saw that Venus had waxing and waning phases just like the moon does from our sky. This observation, among others, convinced him that Venus was circling the sun and that the phases reflected its place in its orbit around the sun, just as the moon's phases show where it is in relationship to the Earth. Some European church authorities believed these observations were blasphemous, because they pushed the Earth out of the center of the universe, and somehow they believed this pushed God out of the center of the universe as well.
In actuality they were promoting the cosmic view of some of the ancient Greek astronomers. As a result this assertion ultimately put Galileo's life in jeopardy. He was taken before the Inquisition, shown the instruments of torture, and forced to recant his scientific observations under threat of torture and death. He was kept under house arrest until his death.
It is said by some that as he was released he muttered the words "eppur si muove," Italian for "And yet it moves," referring to the fact that Venus still moved around the sun, and that the truth about the universe doesn't change even if the prophet is threatened with death. Ultimately this truth from a scientific prophet was heeded.
*****************************************
StoryShare, January 28, 2018, issue.
Copyright 2017 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
