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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Eternal (06/06/24)
The rounded, puffy tops of brilliant white cumulous clouds huddled together like energetic lambs in the blue pastures over the bustling playground. Among the dozens of little bodies dodging in and out of the slides and climbing apparatus lay two youngsters like rocks in a stream. A grey and green backpack lay discarded nearby.

“How long would it take for an inchworm to crawl to the farthest star?”

Freddy Simpson scrunched up his freckled nose and set his knuckled fist under his chin. “That is a big thought,” he conceded. “But how long would it take an amoeba to swim to the farthest star and back a million times?”

Britanny Harper opened her eyelids like morning blinds going up and nodded. “That’s a super, big thought,” she said. “If you take that thought to the Grant Street Philosopher’s Club it might even make Elmo Jergins’ brain pop out of his head.”

Her companion raked fingers through his fiery crewcut and shook his head. “I doubt it,” he said. “Elmo will say something like ‘you teenyboppers don’t know nothing. Time, space, and matter are confined to the universe. Eternity is everything outside time, space, and matter.’”

“Wow! That’s a humungous thought,” Britanny acknowledged. “Not as big a thought as God, but almost.”

“If only we could find a way to convince Dr. Lindell that we have the biggest thought.”

Britanny edged herself up onto an elbow, examining the frown on her friend’s face. “Why is it so important to you that we come up with the biggest thought?”

Freddy jerked upright and wrapped his arms around his knees. “Ever since Elmo found out I went to Sunday School he’s been mocking me as empty-headed. He says I could never belong in the philosopher’s club because I’ve got nothing but wind between my ears. I think that because his dad is a philosophy professor at the university, he thinks he inherited every smart gene in the universe.”

“He is pretty smart.”

“Rattling off Pi to the fortieth number doesn’t mean he’s smart. It just means he can remember things someone else told him. Maybe we could use Pi to define eternity.” Freddy reached out to snag a soccer ball rolling by and tossed it back to the group of boys who had been kicking it against the school wall. “If we told Dr. Lindell that Pi defined eternity, we might convince him we have the biggest thought.”

Britanny reached for the nearby climbing bars and pulled herself erect. “I still say God is a bigger thought than Pi and that we would shrink ourselves to what other people define as big thoughts if we used Pi.”

Freddy stood up beside his friend and brushed himself off. “Yeah, I bet Elmo is probably going to memorize fifty numbers of Pi and claim that he has the biggest thought.”

A smile creased Britanny’s face. “Wait? I’ve got it. What can’t you measure with a ruler or a measuring cup or a scale? It doesn’t come in miles or pounds or gallons.”

Freddy shrugged. “I don’t know. Air?”

Britanny shook her head. “What about God’s love?” She stretched her arms wide.

“What do you mean?”

“Tell me this,” she said, hands on hips. “How high is God’s love?”

“Higher than high,” Freddy answered.

“How wide is God’s love?”

“Wider than wide.”

“How deep is God’s love?”

“Deeper than deep.”

“So?”

Freddy beamed, stretching his arms like Britanny. “How high and wide and deep is the love of God? It goes on forever past eternity. You can’t measure it with miles or pounds or gallons. I get it.”

Britanny nodded, shoulders back. “I think I just had the biggest thought, bigger than any thought that Elmo Jergins’ brain could create.”

“But didn’t you get that thought from the Bible?” Freddy asked. “Does it count if someone else thought of it first?”

“God thought of it first and no one can have bigger thoughts than God,” Becky said. “If he thinks of a thought, it’s a forever thought.”

Freddy reached into his backpack, withdrawing a notebook and pencil. “I’m going to write this down before I forget.”

“Don’t forget, I thought of it first,” Becky said, looking over his shoulder.

“Actually, God thought of it first,” Freddy said. “We’re just thinking God’s thoughts after him.”

“Wow! That’s another big thought,” Becky said. “God made us so we can think what he thinks and know that his love is eternal. Elmo needs to know this.”
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This article has been read 336 times
Member Comments
Member
Date
Philippa Geaney
06/15/24
I thoroughly enjoyed your entry.
Fresh and interesting.
Clever young Britanny to have those big thoughts. Kudos to you for setting the topic within this story.
At first it came to my reader's mind that the children lying as they were in a playground were too young to be using the mature sentence constructions.
Further on I read that they were 'teenyboppers' which explained it.
Big thoughts about eternity transcribed by you.:)

Stephen Kimball
06/17/24
You tell a good story. I could picture the scene. I too thought at the end of the first paragraph, though, that these were little kids - a distraction until you told us different.
That little point aside, I thought it was really well done - great spin on the subject.