Paul and Carol looked out the window at the falling snow. They had just moved to Washington, D.C. from Queensland, Australia and they had never seen snow before. December in Australia is the middle of summer. People would be at the beach or having barbecues.

The other children in the neighborhood were throwing snowballs and building snowmen. There were snowmen all up and down the street. Some had hats and scarves. One had a pipe in his mouth. There was even one whole snow family.

"Let's build a snowman, too." said Carol.

"Right!" Paul answered.

They both ran to get their warm winter jackets, snow boots, hats, scarves and mittens. Then they ran out into the front yard. Paul began to roll a snowball which quickly got bigger and bigger. Carol rolled a smaller one. The children rolled the larger one over next to a tree and put the smaller one on top of it. They made some smaller snowballs and packed them against the tree until they had two arms and two legs wrapped around the trunk of the tree. Finally they made two smaller snowballs for ears, each one flattened on one side. Paul ran to find a smooth black rock for a nose and Carol found two smaller ones for eyes. They stepped back to look at their snowman.

"Just a minute." said Carol as she ran into the house. In a minute she was back with a piece of dried eucalyptus to put in the snowman's mouth. Some children came running up.

"Come and look at the snowman that Paul and Carol made," they called to the other children further down the block.

"It's not a snowman." laughed Carol, "It's a snow koala!"

Sometimes we shy away from things that are new or different. Jesus taught us to love all people. And when you do you learn some really neat stuff. The kids in Paul and Carol's neighborhood got to learn all about the animals of Australia and how people there talk. And Paul and Carol gained many good friends.

"A new Commandment I give you:
That you love one another as I have loved you."
John 13:34

Next fall when you see geese heading south for the winter... flying along in V formation...you might consider what science has discovered as to why they fly that way:

As each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird immediately following. By flying in V formation the whole flock adds at least 71% greater flying range, than if each bird flew on its own.

People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going more quickly and easily because they are traveling on the thrust of one another.

When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to go it alone... and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird in front. If we have as much sense as a goose, we will stay in formation with those who are headed the same way we are.

When the head goose gets tired it rotates back in the wing and another goose flies point. It is sensible to take turns doing demanding jobs...with people or with geese flying south.

Geese honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed. What do we say when we honk from behind?

Finally...and this is important...when a goose gets sick or is wounded by gunshots, and falls out of formation, two other geese fall out with that goose and follow it down to lend help and protection. They stay with the fallen goose until it is able to fly or until it dies, and only then do they launch out on their own, or with another formation to catch up with their group.

If we have the sense of a goose, we will stand by each other like that.......

All the good things we have come from God. He made the sun to give us light by day, and the moon and stars so we can have some light at night. And God made the earth for us to live on. The sun, the moon, the stars and the earth were not the first things God made. Do you know what was the first? God first made persons like himself. We can't see these persons, just as we can't see God. In the Bible these persons are called angels. God made the angels to live with himself in heaven.

The first angel God made was very special. He was God's first Son, and he worked with his Father. He helped God to make all other things. He helped God to make the sun, the moon, the stars and also our earth.

What was the earth like then? In the beginning no one could live on earth. There was nothing but one big ocean of water all over the land. But God wanted people to live on earth. So he began to get things ready for us. What did he do? Well, first the earth needed light. So God made the light from the sun to shine on the earth. He made it so there could be both nighttime and daytime. Afterward God caused land to come up above the water of the ocean.

God had made the heavens and the earth. At first there was nothing on the land. There were no flowers or trees or animals. There were not even any fish in the oceans. God had a lot more work to do to make the earth really nice for animals and people to live on.

First, God made green grass to cover the land. And he made all kinds of small plants and bushes and trees. These growing things help to make the earth pretty. But they do more than that. Many of them also give us foods that taste very good. God later made fish to swim in the water and birds to fly in the sky. He made dogs and cats and horses; big animals and small animals. What animals live near your home? Shouldn't we be glad that God made all these things for us?

Finally, God made one part of the earth a very special place. He called this place the garden of Eden. It was just perfect. Everything about it was beautiful. And God wanted the whole earth to become just like this pretty garden he had made.

This is how Jehovah God made Adam. He took some dust from the ground and with it he formed a perfect body, a man's body. Then he blew into the man's nose, and Adam came to life. Jehovah God had a job for Adam. He told Adam to name all the different kinds of animals. Adam may have watched the animals for a long time so he could pick the best names for them all. While Adam was naming the animals he began to see something. Do you know what that was?

The animals all had mates. There were papa elephants and mama elephants, and there were papa lions and mama lions. But Adam had no one to be his mate. So Jehovah God made Adam fall into a deep sleep, and he took a rib bone from his side. Using this rib, Jehovah God made a woman for Adam, and she became his wife.

How happy Adam was now! And think how happy Eve must have been to be put in such a beautiful garden to live! Jehovah God wanted Adam and Eve to live forever. He wanted them to make the whole earth as pretty as the garden of Eden. How happy Adam and Eve must have been when they thought about doing this!

You can find this story in your Bible at: Genesis chapters 1 and 2

The Nile river is the longest river in the world. It starts out in Lake Victoria, in the middle of Africa, and flows nearly four thousand (4,000) miles north to the Mediterranean Sea.

Lake Victoria, where the Nile starts, is the second largest fresh-water lake in the world. The only lake that is larger is Lake Superior, in between Canada and the United States.

Now nobody knows for sure who first suggested the great ping pong ball experiment. It might have been dreamed up by some absent-minded, daydreaming inventor. Or, it could have been thought up by some great scientist. Or, it might have been thought up by a little kindergartner in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

But the important thing is that somebody thought of it. And before long, people all over the world were talking about it. The newspapers printed stories about it. Television stations did special feature stories on it. And, everyone, just everyone, expected that the great ping pong ball experiment would happen right on time.

What exactly was the great ping pong ball experiment anyway? How was the experiment to be performed, and what was it supposed to show?

The great ping pong ball experiment took place to show just one thing. The purpose of the experiment was to show that a small, frail ping pong ball could travel four thousand miles down the longest river in the world.

The experiment would end when the ping pong ball reached the capital city of Egypt, Cairo. At that time, a kindergarten student from one of the schools in Cairo would reach down into the Nile, and pick up the ping pong ball that had been thrown into the river way back at Lake Victoria.

Two months. That's how long the ping pong ball would have to travel from Lake Victoria to Cairo. To add some zest and excitement to the experiment, the ping pong ball was to be thrown into the top of the Nile River on November 1, 1999. The entire world would then watch to see if the ball could travel the length of the Nile before midnight, December 31, 1999.

But the journey would be a dangerous one for a small, frail ping pong ball to travel. The ball would have to survive at least nine large waterfalls. It would have to survive being thrown against rocks and boulders. It would have to survive getting stuck in the papyrus reeds by the side of the river. And most importantly, it would have to survive getting swallowed by any hungry fish along the way.

People would follow it all along its long journey. Scientists would follow it by driving along roads that traveled parallel to the Nile river. They would keep careful track of how far the ball had traveled each day. Sometimes they would even circle over the ping pong ball in a helicopter, making sure that the ball was safely travelling downstream.

Once a week people all over the globe would turn on their televisions to see how far the ping pong ball had traveled in the past week. The television studios would have a large map of Africa on the wall, with an arrow pointing to where the ping ball was on that particular day.

It would be an elegantly simple experiment for the people of planet Earth to perform. For two months, the attention of the world would be focussed on what was happening to a ping pong ball travelling down the Nile river.

The outcome of the great ping pong ball experiment would not change the lives of many persons living on this planet. But perhaps, just perhaps, the experiment itself would help people realize that in some ways the planet Earth is just a small, frail ping pong ball traveling through space.

Copyright 1995 by Phil Shapiro All Rights Reserved.
This story may be freely copied and distributed for noncommercial purposes. In particular, it may be freely used for any freeware or shareware software projects.

Once upon a time . . . a dog managed to steal a large steak from a butcher's shop, and ran into the woods to eat it in peace. On reaching the banks of a stream, he happened to see his face reflected in the water. Never for a moment thinking that he was looking at himself in the water, what he thought he saw was another dog, holding a large steak in its mouth.

Being a greedy dog, he jumped into the stream to snatch the other dog's meat. Of course, the reflection vanished and he could see no sign of dog or steak.

Only then did he realize that, when he barked to frighten the other, he had dropped his stolen meat. Unluckily for him, the current was swift and the steak had been carried away. And though the dog hunted all over, he couldn't find a trace of it. Which meant, that instead of having two steaks. he was left with nothing.