Artwork by Kelly Venturo
There once were two little chipmunk brothers named Crank-bait and Curly-tail. They lived in a cozy hollow log in a quiet spruce forest. Their beds were made of soft, springy moss, and their door was a large, rough piece of pine bark. Every day, when the weather was nice and the sun was bright, these two chipmunks were outside scurrying through the leaves. Sometimes they were playing games like Tag or Hide-and-Seek, and sometimes they were looking for juicy nuts to eat.
But Crank-bait and Curly-tail had to be very careful whenever they were outside their house. This was because there were all sorts of predators that liked to eat chipmunks in the forest—predators like hawks, snakes, and cats. Crank-bait and Curly-tail had to always be on the lookout for scary creatures like these.
One day, Crank-bait and his brother Curly-tail were outside playing Tag. Crank-bait was “It” and both he and Curly-tail were sprinting through the dead leaves and spruce cones at full speed. Crank-bait’s paw was inches away from the fur on his brother’s back, when Curly-tail stopped so suddenly that Crank-bait ran right into him. Curly-tail sucked in his breath sharply through his two front teeth and pointed a trembling finger straight out in front of them. There, on the trail ahead was a big fat snake. He lay curled up in a sun patch, the sun rays gleaming off his brown, mottled scales, fast asleep, with his tail folded neatly around his chin. He was a smart snake too, for he had positioned himself exactly in the path he knew that chipmunks like to use. Crank-bait and Curly-tail had almost run right into him. For half a moment, Curly-tail and Crank-bait stood staring, open-mouthed, because they had never been so near such an evil creature before. Then, turning tail, they zipped back through the spruce wood, faster than ever they had before, and didn’t stop until they reached the pine bark door of their little log house. They thrust open the door, rushed inside, and collapsed onto their soft moss beds—they were safe at last. For a long time, they lay there, panting and trembling.
At long last, when their hearts had stopped beating so frantically, Crank-bait spoke up. “That snake was right in the middle of our path!” he excitedly squeaked.
“We almost ran right into him!” Curly-tail gasped.
There was another long silence.
Then Crank-bait spoke again. “You know, brother,” he said. “Other little chipmunks use that path.”
“That’s true, brother,” said Curly-tail. “They will have to be very careful not to wake that wicked beast when they pass.”
“They might not see him.” said Crank-bait. “They might walk right into him. They might get eaten!”
Crank-bait stood up and turned to face his brother. “Curly-tail, we have a very important job to do! We must warn every chipmunk in the area to stay away from that path. Then they will not run into that snake and be eaten!”
Curly-tail stood up too. “I never thought of that! You’re right, brother!”
All that afternoon, Crank-bait and Curly-tail were busy, running from house to house, knocking on every door. They warned every chipmunk in the forest that there was danger on the path. And because of Crank-bait’s and Curly-tail’s hard work, that wicked snake’s clever plan failed, and not one little chipmunk got caught!
Curly-tail, Crank-bait, and all the other chipmunks were in terrible danger—there was a hungry snake right in the middle of their path! Did you know that the world right now is in terrible danger too? And this danger is a lot scarier than a hungry snake. This terrifying danger is that God has promised in the Bible that He is going to come one day and destroy the world with fire (2 Peter 3:10-12). Why would God destroy the world? Isn’t He loving and kind? Of course He is, but He is also holy. That means He is so perfect and good that He cannot be near sin. He cannot even look at sin! God is so holy that He has to punish sinners. He can’t let liars and robbers and murderers into Heaven, can He? The scary thing is, according to the Bible in Romans 3:23, everyone in the world has sinned. This means we have broken God’s laws. We deserve to be punished.
But remember, God is loving and kind as well as holy. He showed us His love by sending Jesus to die on a cross to take the punishment for your sin. He was punished instead of you! He was buried but came alive again! Now, if you turn from your sin and trust in Jesus to take it away from you, you will be saved from God’s anger, and He will not punish you in Hell. This is incredible news, right?
The sad thing is, though, many people in the world today don’t know about this good news. They don’t know that God is angry at them for their sin and will send them to Hell if they do not turn from their sin and trust in Jesus. They don’t know what Jesus did to save them from their sin.
Remember Curly-tail and Crank-bait? They warned every chipmunk in the forest that there was a snake on the path. If they hadn’t, a chipmunk might have gone down that path and been eaten. Just like Crank-bait and Curly-tail, we need to warn people about God’s anger for their sin. If we do not, they may end up in Hell. This job we have is extremely important—so important, in fact, that God has commanded us to do it. In the book of Mark chapter 16 verse 15, Jesus said, "'Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.' " The word gospel just means “good news.” The Gospel is the good news that Jesus died to take the punishment for your sin. And God wants you to share this wonderful news with everybody you can! You don’t have to be a grownup to share the Gospel. There are things you can do even as a little kid.
In my next post, I am going to help you think of things you can do to share the Gospel even as a kid. But first, make sure you have asked Jesus to save you from your sin. Then pray that God will help you be brave and to have ideas so you can share the good news of Jesus with those around you.
Remember—it was Curly-tail’s and Crank-bait’s job to warn the chipmunks around them about the danger of the snake in the path. And it is our job to warn the people around us about the danger of Hell.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Used by permission. All rights reserved.