Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: LEAVE (11/16/23)
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TITLE: Tell Us A Story | Previous Challenge Entry
By Lynn Jacky
11/23/23 -
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Richard brought his tobacco and pipe. Grandfather never told a story without first lighting his pipe. Of course by today’s standards no one smokes in front of their children. We all anxiously watched as he placed tobacco in his pipe, lit the match and puffed until there was smoke.
“When I was a young lad, just about your age Joseph, I was having a bit of a struggle with listening. That day I made a huge decision, I was going to run away.
“Grandfather,” Natalie asked. “Weren’t afraid of leaving your mother?”
“I never thought about hurting anyone, I just wanted to leave and never come back. I guess I wanted to do my own thing.” Grandfather replied as he sat Natalie upon his knee.
“Of course I didn’t get very far.” He continued. “There at the far end of our garden stood a gnarly old fig tree. I climbed on its big limb, sat there for while thinking about my situation.” Grandpa puffed on his pipe.
“I was about to pick a ripe fig when I noticed I was completely hidden among the leaves. I had my very own special hideout.”
“Granddad at my age, you had your own hideaway.” Joseph inquired.
“Awesome!” All the boys excitedly declared.
“It was awesome, I could see all around but no one could see me.” Grandfather lazily took a few more puffs then continued. “Or so I thought.”
Grandfather’s voice thundered. “Having trouble?” He continued. “I couldn’t see anyone so I didn’t pay attention, just kept munching on figs .”
“What’s the matter, can’t you speak!” the voice boomed again.
“This time the earth shook, branches moved wildly, the leaves rustled and I was pushed out of the tree.” Grandfather roared with laughter. “Yes,” nodding to each of us. “It was a talking tree.”
The end of this story is told by the children. Grandmother thought it would be fun if we slept in the big large room on the third level. Grandmother chuckled as we tried to figure out whose father slept where.
“The best part when that gnarly tree knocked grandfather on his bottom.” Joseph began.
We all had a good laugh thinking about grandfather being scared but wasn’t going to let that tree boss him around.
Natalie asked. “Sahara why do you think grandfather ended his story with Gen-es-is?”
Sahara sat up in bed. “Genesis is the story of what happened to Adam and Eve, our first grandparents.”
Richard the serious one of the grandchildren said, “There is a bigger lesson here.” He continued. “It’s about listening or what my mother calls obeying.”
Natalie spoke up next, “They did not listen to Father God.”
“They let themselves be deceived by someone else’s words.” Joseph added his wisdom.
“And they didn’t have a mom and dad to show them how to listen.” Natalie concluded.
Richard pointed out, “It’s important not to run away from our problems.”
“Richard you’re so right, I had to learn that the hard way.” Sahara continued, “We should always pray first, talk to our parents and then make a decision.”
“How tragic,” Natalie spoke again, “God drove them from the garden.”
Adam and Eve because of their disobedience were forced to leave their beautiful home in the garden wearing fig leaves.
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I thought the children were quite young in the first few paragraphs but their ability to unpack Adam and Eves' problem in a fairly mature way may have contradicted that.
Maybe I've forgotten how kids speak now days.
There were many reasons to smile reading this strong family value story.
But I did struggled with transitioning from sitting on grandpa's lap and sleeping in the in big room. Some kind of sentence that would have bridged the two would have helped.