Andrew and Simon saw in the paper that it was going to really warm today. After two weeks of cold, no… very cold, no…darn cold weather, the snow was gone, the sun was out, road was clear, and it was Sunday afternoon.
It was time to play road hockey.
Andrew got on the phone and called Dave next door, “Dave, let’s play hockey!”
“I can’t, I’m going to my aunt’s for dinner.”
Simon called Peter down the street, “Pete, I’ve got my net outside, you want to play hockey?”
“Sorry, Simon, I have too much homework.”
“Homework! It’s Sunday! You can work on it tonight!” Simon exclaimed.
“I just want to get a head start,” said Peter. “Call me tomorrow.”
Andrew and Simon must have made over 10 phone calls and their friends were either too busy or not home. They had to play together.
Andrew was the goalie and Simon practiced his slap-shots on him. It was fun, but not as fun as with other people.
After about a half hour, their mom called, “Andrew, telephone. I think it’s Alice.”
“What does she want?” Andrew thought to himself as he put down his stick and went into the house.
A few minutes later, Andrew came out frowning. “Alice and her cousin are coming over.” He said glumly.
Simon rolled his eyes. He didn’t want to play with girls. They were too…girly.
Alice and her cousin Sally came running down the street with their hockey sticks. Andrew and Simon figured they could beat them in two-on-two, but the girls had other ideas.
“I have a really cool game to play,” said Alice. “I learned it at sports camp.”
“What is it?” asked Andrew, not convinced it was going to be any fun.
“Just watch.”
Alice and Sally grabbed the little green tennis ball and placed two large plastic rings in the middle of the road. “The first one to get the ball in the ring wins.”
“O that’s easy,” said Simon.
“Then try it.” Simon tried. Then Andrew. Then Alice and Sally.
They played all afternoon until the street lights came on and Andrew and Simon’s mom called them in for dinner.
That night as they were getting into their pajamas, their mom asked, “Boy it looked like you two had fun with Alice and her cousin this afternoon.
The boys grunted. “It would have been more fun to play real hockey.”
“But you had fun didn’t you?”
“Yes,” the two boys grudgingly admitted. “But we really wanted to play with the guys but no one was home.”
“When you think about it, that’s sort of what like happened to Jesus in the bible story we heard at church. Jesus called his first followers, but they weren’t the ones anyone else would have picked. Just like Alice and Sally surprised you by how much fun they could be, even though they were girls, the first followers were fishermen, and back then, no one really liked fishermen. But they surprised everyone by being chosen by Jesus.”
“But why would Jesus choose fishermen as his followers if no one liked them? Why didn’t he choose someone who everyone liked?” asked Simon.
“I guess God likes to surprise people,” said mom
Then they said a prayer like this as we do now: Dear God, thank for choosing us as your followers. Help us follow where you lead the way. Amen.
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