It's More Than That

By Sharon-Kathleen Corner

It’s More Than That

starts with one kid sitting down at recess, reading the bible, backpack nearby, maybe eating a snack.

A:  There you are again, reading....always reading!  (Sits down next to A)

B:  (annoyed at being disturbed) yes, i am reading.  I enjoy reading.

A:  What is this?  (Grabs book)  Oh my gosh, you are reading.....the BIBLE?  Seriously?

B:  Give me that!  (Takes book back)  Yes, I am reading the bible...any objection?

A:  Yeah, DULLSVILLE!   Thou shalt this and Thou shalt that!  Why would anyone want to read that?

B:  It's more than that.

A:  (In a booming voice) God pointed his mighty finger and said "let there be light" and it was good.

B:  Again, there's more in the bible than that.

A: And Jesus said "Your faith has saved you, go and sin no more."

B:  Close, Mark 10:52 says 'Go your way, your faith has saved you' but i am impressed you knew that much.

A:  Who is Mark?

B:  Okay, i was impressed, but I'm not anymore.

A:  (Stares at B for a minute) did you just insult me?  Oh whatever.  The bible is boring, if you HAVE to read, read a real book.

B:  Like what?  What do you normally read?

A:  Murder mystery, i love a good book about murder.

B:  (starts flipping through the bible)  Murder...murder...murder....okay....how about this one?  From the book of Numbers –

A:  There's a book called Numbers?

B:  (Gives A a dirty look)  "Then the Lord said to Moses, "say to the assembly, 'Move away from the tents of Korah,      Dathan and Abiram....As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, with their households and all Korah's men and all their possessions.  They went down alive into the grave, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community.

A:  Oh snap!

B:  (Flips to another pages)  Murder, murder, murder...oh, here is a good one....in the book of Judges.  He asked for and she gave him milk; she brought him curds in a noble's bowl.  She sent her hand to the tent peg and her right hand to the worlmen's mallet; she struck Sisera; she crushed his head; she shattered and pierced his temple.  Between her feet he sank, he fell, he lay still; between her feet he sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell-dead.

A:  Oh man!  She murdered a guy with a tent stake!  WOW!  That's cold!!

B:  Glad you enjoyed it.

A:  Oh yeah, nothing like some gore to keep the blood flowing...

B:  That was very sick.

A:  Yeah...i know....what else is in there?  Any magic? 

B:  Sure...Moses took his walking stick, threw it to the ground, it turned into a slithering snake!

A:  That is good.

B:  Then, that same stick, turned an entire river of water, into a river of blood.

A:  Okay, that's gross.

B: (Grins and laughs)  What next?

A:  Hmmmmm, battles...wars. 

B:  oh, that's easy...you know the batte of Isreal that is happening right now?

A:  Of course....

B:  It starts in the bible...

A:  No, really?

B:  Yeah, really.

A:  You would think there would be a winner by now...or someone would surrender...

B:  Yeah, well....and there is the coolest of all wars, the batte of Jericho.

A:  Why is the battle of Jericho so cool?

B:  They won without using weapons.

A:  How do you win a war without weapons?

B:  With God's help.  He came up with great batte plan.  For seven days, he had this guy named Joshua take the Lords Army marching around the city of Jericho, which was protected by these huge walls, known as the Walls of Jericho.

A:  Marching around, chopping away at the wall, digging away underneath it?

B:  Nope, just silently walking around the walls. 

A:  For seven days?

B:  Yeah.  And on the seventh day, they shouted as loud as they could, and the walls tumbled down.  The Isrealites stormed the city, killed everything and everyone and won the battle.

A:  Okay, that is cool.  Romance!  Is there romance in the bible?

B:  Oh gosh, yes...!   There is Rachel and Jacob, love at first sight...but he had to work for Rachels father for 14 years to marry her.

A:  Fourteen years?  Really?  That must have been true love. 

B:  And then there is my favorite story, Ruth and Boaz....he fell in love with her while she was picking up stray scraps of hay in his fields so that she and her mother in law could survive.

A:  ahhhhhhhhhh.  (Romantic look on face)  That's really sweet.

B:  Then there's the story of the father who loved his other children so much that he allowed soldiers to kill his Son, so that the rest of the world would live.

A:  What?  Really?  Oh my gosh, that is so sad!  Where is that?  Who did that?

B:  God.  God sacrificed his Son, Jesus Christ, allowed him to be hung on the Cross, so that we could have eternal life, to be saved from sin.

A:  He allowed them to kill his Son?

B:  Yeah, it's all in here (hold up the bible)  How God so loved us, you, me, everyone on earth, that he sacrificed his one and only Son, so that we can go to Heaven.

A:  How?

B:  Tell you what, let's go grab a burger, and I will tell you all about it.  It's some great reading.