Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Story shared at St. Regis Community Church

The Bear Story

by on Feb.21, 2012, under Faith

The following story was written by my friend, Craig Sheppard. It is a good story to share with children, but adults will enjoy it too.

There was once a family of bears who lived in a cave high on the side of a mountain. There was a momma bear, a papa bear and a baby bear. The mama and papa bear had one rule they taught the baby bear. The rule was never cross the big creek outside the cave, for beyond the creek lay a deep, dark forest. They reminded baby bear of the rule often. But baby bear really wanted to cross the big creek.

One day baby bear couldn’t stand it any longer. He waited until momma bear and papa bear were very busy. Then he went outside and quickly crossed the creek!

At first, baby bear thought it was exciting to be on the other side of the creek. He ran along the bank, always staying within eye distance of the cave. Then he became bolder and followed a trail he found heading into the forest. Soon it became very dark all around him. When he saw it becoming darker he became frightened. He tried to follow the trail back to the creek, but somehow he’d lost the trail. It was getting late and he finally realized he was lost. This made him more frightened and he began to cry.

As he sat and wondered what to do, he heard a noise in the woods drawing near him. This frightened baby bear even more. He was about to run away from the noise, when suddenly a big moose broke through the trees. It was just the moose that had made all the noise. The moose saw the baby bear and greeted him.

“Hi baby bear, it is nice to meet you. But what are you doing in the deep, dark forest? I thought all the papa and momma bears taught their babies not to walk in the forest.”

Baby bear said, “I’m lost, big moose, and I’m very scared. Can you tell me how to get to the big creek?”

The moose recognized baby bear as belonging to the momma and papa bear that lived in the cave on the side of the mountain. The moose told baby bear to follow him.

After a little walking baby bear heard the creek and recognized where he was. They finally came out of the dark woods and crossed the creek to his cave. Mama and Papa were worried and jumped for joy because the moose brought baby bear home. They thanked the moose greatly, and baby bear gave the moose a big hug!

To us, the world is like the forest. When we are given boundaries like the creek, we have a natural desire to go where we should not go. When we do something we shouldn’t do it feels good at first. But then we often get lost – and frightened. The moose is like Jesus Christ. He knows where we are, and if we ask Him he’ll bring us to safely back to God.

Luke 15:11-24.