These short stories were written over a period of 25 years. Each one was given to Jamon as a single thought from God’s spirit. It is hoped that you will see God’s hand in these stories, and seek him out for help in your life. May you be greatly inspired.
It is not known if this conversation actually took place or not, however, it is known that the end result is true. The scene is heaven at God’s throne.
God: “The earth is becoming very corrupt, if I do no do something to get man’s attention that will cause him to turn away from his selfish ways, he will destroy the earth and himself along with it. Send to me my three wisest angels.”
Three Angels: “Father, we are here at your request for your service and glory.”
God: “Search the earth and find someone of great faith in me so that I might use him to change the hearts of man and return to worshiping me that I may again bless the earth with peace and happiness before my Son is forced to return to the earth and stop its total destruction.”
Three angels: “We will do as you request Father. We will return soon with the name of someone who will carry out your will on earth.” The angels left heaven and came to earth to search for a faithful man. The angels then agreed that they should search separately and then meet a few days later with the results that they find.
After searching the earth from one end to the other they met again and made their way back to heaven to report to God of what they had found.
When once again in the presence of God the first angel spoke out: “Father we have searched the entire earth and have not found one person who is willing to do your will to help save mankind.”
“This is hard for me to accept”, said God. “Tell me what you found and let me judge for myself.”
The first angel spoke up and said: “We found many people who love you and worship you but they have their own lives that they want to live.”
The second angel then said: “We have found many clergymen who seek your will but it is only to further their own careers.”
The third angel then spoke up and said that many spiritual leaders have become proud and arrogant because they think they put themselves in the position that they are in.”
God interrupts and says: “Are you telling me that there is not one person on the whole earth who will humble themselves to my spirit and my will?
The first angel said: “Father, I did find such a man but he is not educated or qualified to do your work. He is a humble man but he is poor and does not have powerful friends or resources for doing the work you want done. He is not someone that I would recommend to you.”
God: “I have heard enough. Who is this man? I will educate him. I will give him the money he needs. I will give him powerful friends.”
“I will make him qualified to do my work and then I will use him to bring mankind to its senses before the earth is destroyed. As long as this man stays humble and carries out my will then I will bless him and anyone around him. I will give him riches beyond compare.”
“I will make him a powerful man and my power will flow through him to help and to heal the earth.”
“I will make him my spokesman so that people will listen to him and know that it is my spirit that is speaking through him.”
“Bring me this man and I will do the rest.”
The angels left Gods throne to return to the earth for this one man for God to use to carry out his will.
Once God had prepared this man he was known throughout the world as one of Gods prophets and he brought many people to know about God and his son Jesus.
One bright, sunny day in Jerusalem, a young donkey was tied next to his mother beside a house. As the young donkey looked around, he began to think about the time when he would become a beast of burden like his mother and carry heavy loads for long distances. He noticed some chickens scratching for food near him and he thought to himself, “I wish I were a chicken instead of a donkey. A chicken just walks around all day finding food and living a life of ease.” Then a little boy passed by carrying a cage with two doves in it. The young donkey watched as the doves shuffled in the cage and he thought, “If only I could have been a dove, all they do is stay in a safe cage and coo. A little boy even brings their food to them.”
As the morning passed the donkey continued to daydream about being anything except a donkey, a lowly, unimportant donkey. Then, two men came up beside him and untied him. He thought to himself, “Now I must be going to start my life of hard work and carrying heavy burdens.” Slowly, the two men walked towards the edge of the city until they were just outside the city gates. There, they met several other men, standing about and talking.
Suddenly, one of the men got up onto his back. He didn’t like it much, but thought to himself, “This isn’t too bad” and they started back into the city. After only going a short way people began to surround him and began to talk. He just couldn’t understand what was going on. After going a little further, men started taking off their coats and laying them down in front of him, the ones that did not have coats cut off branches from trees and laid them down in the street in front of him. He thought to himself, “I must be very important for people to treat me like this. They are making sure I do not stumble and fall or even bruise my hoof. This is really wonderful, I have never seen a chicken or a dove treated like this.”
As he went on the crowd grew larger and larger with more talking and more coats being laid in front of him. “How wonderful this all is” he thought himself. After going a little further the crowd stopped and gathered close around him. “I wonder what they are going to do now?” he thought as the man on his back gently got off and started walking away. The crowd followed the man and the young donkey was left standing alone. “What is going on?” the donkey wondered, “Here I am! Come back!
Suddenly, he realized that the people were following the man that had been sitting on him and that all of this was for him. The crowd, the talking, the coats, everything. As he stood there alone he thought, “I must know his name.” On the road beside him passed two men, one turned to the other and said, “There he is! There’s Jesus!”
“Jesus! Jesus! That is his name! I must remember that name! When I am with him I’m treated like a king with the world making a path for me and my burdens seem light but when I am alone I am just a beast of burden for the whole world. If I could only live forever with Jesus!” he thought.
The carpenter bent over the discarded pieces of lumber that had been put aside by the other carpenters because they were either warped or knotty or had rough places in them. He took each board and looked at it as if he were able to see right into its center, to see the hidden grain beneath the surface. After selecting several pieces he lifted them on to his shoulders for the trip back to the carpentry shop.
At the carpentry shop the carpenter would take each piece of wood and talked to it as he worked with it. He would tell it how much he loved it and that he thought that it was beautiful. He also told it he knew how much it hurt when he shaped it with his tools but that he had to take away all of the rough parts to bring out its beauty.
He continued to work with the boards and gave each piece special care as he talked to it, telling it that soon he would be finished and that the pain would stop.
Finally, after several days, the carpenter was putting the finishing touches on what had been transformed from rough, rejected lumber into a beautiful dining table, rich with color and a deep grain that made the table strong and solid.
The carpenter stood back a little to admire his work and seeing that it was good began to talk to the table again. “You must remember two things” he said, “ no matter what fine linens are put upon you or if fine china is set upon you or even rich silver, you must never forget that you did not make yourself and that you were made only to serve others”.
After this little talk, the carpenter gently placed the table in the shop window where everyone passing by could see it. In one corner of the table he placed a small sign that read, now ready to serve - Jesus the Carpenter.
There is a large oak tree which lives deep in the forest. One fall, when the leaves were turning and the fall wind was starting to blow, its acorns began to fall to the ground.
It so happened that three acorns fell near each other. One was named Jeff, one Bob and the other one Sue. As they were sunning themselves and talking, Bob said “I hear that if we cover ourselves with leaves and dirt we can be changed into a tree.” Jeff and Sue looked at Bob and laughed and then Jeff said “Aw, you don’t really believe that do you? We are just acorns and that’s all we’ll ever be.” Sue said that she had heard that story too but she didn’t want to leave the warm sunshine and be covered up by cold damp leaves.
About that time a big Blue Jay landed next to Jeff, cracked open his shell, ate him and flew off. Sue turned to Bob and said “Well I guess Jeff was right, we are just acorns to feed the birds and squirrels so I’m going to enjoy this sunshine and this life as long as I can.” Bob said “I still believe the story and am going to see what will happen” so he rolled himself under some leaves.
The days grew colder and shorter and the snow began to fall. As the snow became deeper and deeper the weight of it pushed Bob down under the leaves and into the soft earth.
Bob didn’t realize what was happening to him, he only knew he was protected from the cold winter winds, the freezing rain and the icy snow. His shell was beginning to soften and inside he was changing into tiny roots. As the winter passed, the air began to warm and the days became longer. The snow melted away and the warm spring wind blew the leaves away that had covered Bob all winter long.
Soon Bob began to feel new life inside himself as his tiny roots pushed down into the moist soil. He soaked up the spring sun and the warm rain and began to grow very quickly. The spring and summer past into fall and Bob had grown into a young sapling. He was now strong enough to withstand the winter winds and heavy snows that were to come.
As the years passed, Bob grew taller and stronger and was able to bear the hardships of the forest, such as violent winds, gushing rains and raging fires. He also realized that he had become the tree that he had heard about many years ago. Not only did Bob become a tree but after many years he became the largest tree in the forest. Now when a breeze blows through Bob’s leaves they seem to whisper “believe, believe” so that everyone in the forest will know that all things are possible if you will just believe.
Since time began man has cried out to God “send us a prophet, a savior, a king, send us someone to save us from ourselves”.
We are a weak people who seek only to please ourselves. We need a guide, a leader and a lord who will put us on the path to salvation. God’s reply was, “I have sent you prophet after prophet and you have ignored them, why should I bother to send anyone else?” But the men of the earth continued to beg and plead with God to send them one more prophet, one more king, and said that this time we will listen to his words and do all that he ask.
God said, “I will send someone for you to learn from, someone who will show you how I want you to live. He will be someone who will be very special so listen to him and obey the words that he speaks and you will live forever with me.
Man looked and looked for this new prophet that God was to send but he never came. Many years went by and still no prophet. The world was once again tearing itself apart as wars raged and men were enslaved by other men or drug down into utter despair by their own hand. Then one day word began to spread that a man was claiming to be from God and was doing miracles and healing the sick and was speaking as no one before. People were coming from everywhere to hear and to see this man. The religious leaders thought that finally their king had arrived and that now all evil would be done away with and the earth would be saved from its own destruction. When the religious leaders saw this man and found out that he was a mere commoner that had grown up in a nearby village they scoffed at the thought that he could be a king much less the savior of the world.
He does not wear the fine robes and tall hats like us, they said. He mingles with the lower class of people, not the men of wealth and power that we associate with. When he speaks he does not talk about overthrowing the government or the killing of all evil men. He talks only about love and forgiveness and of worshiping God and putting Him first.
This is not the king we are looking for. He could never be anyone we would look up to or allow to come to power. This man must be stopped before he gains too large of a following, he must be killed. So plans were made and the time was set to take this man and give him a quick trial and to kill him. Before the world knew what had happened, this man was caught and killed with very little disturbance.
The world would now go on as it had with one exception, the man’s followers claimed that this man was from God and went about telling others about him and his work and his love for people. The religious leaders were soon going about their business again but often heard rumors about the man that they had killed. Rumors of him rising from his grave and had begun again to teach people the wonders of God but they were dismissed as wishful thinking by his followers.
After much time had passed the religious leaders once again began to call upon God to send them a leader, a king to save them from this wicked world.
After many years of hearing the pleas of men God responded and said to these men. “I sent you my best to teach you my ways and how to have eternal life with me and you killed him.”
“I sent you my Son, Jesus.”
A gift was left on the doorstep of a young family’s home one spring morning; no one saw who left the gift so it was uncertain who it was from. When the gift was brought into the house all of the family gathered around speculating who it was from and who it was left for. After all, none of them was expecting anything at all.
After inspecting the gift thoroughly one of the children said “let’s open it” I guess it would be all right another child said, after all it was left at our door.
Who wants to open it? Let me said one of the children! The mother said no, no. Let dad open it because he is the head of the house after all and it is probably something for him anyway. OK everyone agreed.
Dad took the small gift that was wrapped in plain brown paper and tired with a white string and looked at it for a minute. I have no idea what this might be he said with a smile. The string was tied in a neat bow on top of the package so as to make it easy to open. He gave one end of the string a pull and the bow come undone and the string fell to one side. Now he unwrapped the paper that was not taped or glued together so all he had to do was to fold the paper back away from the box. Gently he folded each side back away from box.
Now a small white box was sitting in the center of a sheet of brown paper. The children were really getting anxious now and could hardly contain themselves. Hurry dad, said one of the children hurry up and open the box. Be patient he said after all the box might be empty anyway. Please open it the mother said I want to see what it is too.
The box lid was not taped to the bottom of the box so it lifted right off. Ah! Said the children, it is empty, we have been fooled. Someone has played a joke on us said the mother. Wait a minute said the dad. There is a small piece of paper in the bottom of the box. Reaching to the bottom of the box the dad pulled out a small piece of white paper that was folded over once in the center. Unfolding the paper revealed a short hand written message. What does it say? The children chimed in.
The dad with a look of surprise and astonishment read these words. Whoever will receive my gift, I will give the gift of eternal life.
Jesus, the life giver.