Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness around the world.

October 12, 2006

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Today’s Queue Stories

The Learning Tree

Michael T. Smith

            My grandfather, Sim, baited the hook with a worm. He did it slowly, allowing me

to watch and learn. He handed the rod to me, held my arms and taught me to cast my line

into the blue water. Our bobbers floated together, as we sat in the shape of a tree hoping

for a bite.

            “I remember sitting here and watching the fish swimming in the water,”

he said. “Sometimes, they’d jump right of the water and land beside me. I didn’t need a

rod and bait back then.” He was teasing me. I liked it. The sun warmed us. We sat and

talked.

            “We have to be patient.” he continued. “The fish may come or they may not. It

doesn’t matter. We’re out in the sun. It’s a beautiful day. We’re lucky to have the warmth

of the sun.” He leaned back against a tree and sighed. “Yes, it’s a great day.”

            I watched our bobbers. No fish pulled them under that day.  It didn’t matter. I was

with granddad. I felt grown up. Just being with him was special.

            Later, I sat in the back of the boat and watched as he rowed. His powerful muscles

rippled with each pull on the oars. I wanted to be like him when I grew up. He was well

liked by everyone. He’d struggled hard all his life for the little he had, but he managed to

find time to laugh.

            He was an amazing man. In the time we had together, he taught me many things:

bait a hook, enjoy a good laugh, value a good friend, respect elders, work hard and love

harder.

            He didn’t always teach me directly. I pictured him with my mom, when she was a

child, teaching and guiding her to maturity. The things he taught her would be passed on

to me.

            The family tree is a learning tree. The larger, older branches support and guide

the new smaller branches. They balance the family structure with their strength. Over

time, the branches above grow large, join with other families, and shade the older

branches below. The old branches grow weak from the lack of light, die and fall away.

The branches above take over their role on the learning tree, supporting the new

family members.

            I became a dad - new branches shaded me from the sun. Later, more branches

formed above them. The tree grows. Ginny and I add support. The learning tree continues

to grow.

 Michael T. Smith

mtsmith@qwestonline.com

To read my stories or to sign up
to receive my weekly story, go to:
http://archives.zinester.com/86758/

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Peace In Our Time

Bill Walker

missourisage@yahoo.com

A very wise man wrote quite a story to think about.  It was about peace and war. For some reason there has been very little of the thing called peace, much about wars. Man may make plows for a short time,, but he loves to make things for war much better. Some where at any given time, there is a war going on, or the threat of war. Mankind loves, and lives for war.

It is not Gods work that cause the war, God is a God of love.  His best selling book of all time points that out  So why do we have wars?  We read in his book of books the reason.  It is the nature of man to keep the pot boiling some where.  Man that loves war has a great friend to help him keep the pot boiling.  His name is Satan and his large group of angels.  Remember when Satan got booted out of Heaven,  he and one third of the angels landed no where but on earth.. Earth is their home, to the day those are casted into the lake of fire. Satan and company has a very easy task.   Man does the work of making wars,  Satan and company just tells a few stories and lies and we have a full blown war.

We like to say we are a peace loving people, but are we? Why do we as the United States maintain such a large stock pile of weapons?

The answer to that is simple.  I think there is a couple reasons. The first will take a bit longer to write, The second is just a few words.

You may need a class in history.. I hear history isn't much in school any more.  So professor Bill will give it to you.

The year is 1918.  November 11, at 11 AM. 11 minutes into the hour. The war to end all wars came to an end.  That is a joke class.  It was lets go home and make bigger weapons and get ready for the next blow out.  Some nations made it tough on Germany and others, Wanted war damages, paid in hard cash. For a while had troops station in parts of Germany.  Made the Germans pay for troops being there.  German was to hand over a great amount of war ships to Dear Old England and the frogs of France..  Some ships was put to the bottom by German crews so would not be handed over.. For that England demanded more money.  The President of the U.S. pleaded with England and France to go easy,, but no, the hot heads had to have their way. That would be Woodrow Wilson, he came home a broken man.  This was for two reasons.. He tried to get a League of Nations.  This if worked right would have teeth and put a stop to any more wars.  He seen it was going no where both there and in the states.  And yes we the United States did take some German ships.

The people of the United States was sick of wars.  There was a meeting of major nations.  At this meeting it was ruled.  each nation could have so many war ships of a certain class. The big nations could have only so many battleships, and so on. The smaller nations didn't need as many so their amount was less.  Germany did not need any thing larger then a heavy cruiser. The people of the United States said lets cut the army, the navy to the bones,, don't need them any more..  Didn't we just say we had the last war.. the war to end all wars?  We going to have peace for ever,, and if another one cranks up somewhere we will stay out of it.

Well Hitler came to power in Germany.. He read the rules, for a man that was a flunky in the war that just ended, he was smart enough to know how to read.  The rules says no large battleships. But we can build a heavy cruiser.. Pocket Battleship was born.  These suckers was large enough to carry some pretty good size canons.   When one of these made a ramps to sea,, it was Kate bar the door. They might be a hair under size to a big battleship,, but these had the canons,  more so then the old war horses the English had. And these could throw a 2 ton shell one heck of a long ways.  England might rule the seas,  but it took 1/2 the fleet to handle any one of these pocket battle ships..  And if one could make it into the open seas,  could sure have the English shaken in their shoes.  German also made what was called raiders.  These looked like just a tramp ship, freighter type, but packed a few canons.  Was no match for a regular war ship say of cruiser class.   But that wasn't what these was looking for.  One was put to sea,  not to return for a long time if ever. The idea was to stop a ship that was carrying supplies to some out post.  Remove the supplies, and the people off of the ship, and then sink it. After a few stops of stopping ships.  The crews would be put on land some where to spend the rest of the war in some prison camp. Once in a while a ship would make it to a German port with some of the supplies,  that is a ship that could be captured. With out putting a hole in it to get it stopped.

The thing is between the big wars.  England did a lot of sleeping.  The United States did nothing but get in a lot of sack time.

Now on the other side of the world.. Japan was one of the  good guys.  They could have battleships and aircraft ships.. So they built super size.  Their battleships was with 19 inch cannons.  The aircraft carriers was also super sized.  Also Japan was looking forward.  Battleships is just ducky,  but the next war is going to need aircraft carriers for the planed war.  Now to be a grad of the army and navy schools of Japan one had to write up how to attack a place called Pearl Harbor,, and sink the American navy. 

So you see there is always those that is working on the next war.   Some may sleep for a time.. I think this is one thing we learned..  Don't sleep much.  If a big nation that wants peace, sleeps to long,, will soon find the nap was to long, a few years to long.

The Bible tells very plan, There will be wars and rumors of wars right to the very end.  WHY?   Because mankind loves wars and has a great helper in getting troubles and wars going.. Name is Satan and Company.

There will be no Peace in our time,  has there every been Peace in any time? Not for long.. Maybe a few days.  And mighty few at best.   There is troubles some where at any given time.

Tinker and Poo; The Boys Write

http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?&isbn=0-595-35741-5

~**~**~

BREAKFAST ON THE BEACH

Come and Dine

 Joan Clifton Costner

The air had taken on the distinct smell of Springtime and there were buds on the

water plants. Things that had hidden themselves under the water during the colder

weather were pushing their way to the top. Called away from our nets once, here we were again, because we simply didn’t know what else to do. Although it was a requirement of fishermen, waiting had never been our best virtue. The eight of us figured we could bring in a pretty good catch, especially with the moon so full, but we labored, tossed and dragged nets all night to no avail. We didn’t talk much. All

of us were lost in our own thoughts hoping some fog would lift, or someone’s mind would suddenly receive a revelation of what to do, where to go. Too much was

not understood ~ and too much was just unbelievable. So, I did understand well, when Peter said, "I’m going fishing!" It was the most natural and normal thing to do. We had done it since we were boys.

The night was rather warm and the work felt better with our shirts off. We tossed them in the center of the boat to keep them from getting so wet. Off and on through the long, silvery night we thought we felt the familiar tug of fish bodies hitting the net, but when the heavy wet net came in, there was nothing.

Just before dawn it seemed extra cool and the morning star was so bright, it made us all think of the Master. To think we had walked and talked with the One who set the courses of those stars and spoke them into being and never even realized it! It made us all feel so dull witted and dense. Revelation hadn’t come easy to any of us and we surely didn’t feel like chiding Thomas for not wanting to be duped into falling for some superstitious fabrication of someone’s imagination. Every time I looked at Peter all night long, a twinge of sympathy filled my heart. After all, Peter was himself - impetuous and quick witted. All of us had deserted, not just Peter.

The Master understood that too, or He would not have been so implicit in His instruction to Mary, singling Peter out by name, making sure he understood that he was included in the meeting in Galilee. We all understood, Peter would be hardest of all on himself, but we eight were quite willing to follow him to the boat, and we held nothing against him because we would, evidently, be coming in empty handed this morning.

Each man toiled and strained through the night, but the hardest work of all was probably going on in our minds. The memories seemed to take on new significance with every hour that passed. The storm He stilled on this very water! With

only His words! This water had held up His feet - and Peter’s also! This water had carried His voice to those waiting on the beach, also landed us next to the wildest man I had ever seen. Within minutes, the man was delivered and in his right mind.

Two thousand demonized pigs lay dead in the water.

Here we had watched many sunsets and sunrises. Our Master had slept in a boat

on this sea. There was comfort here.

How many times had He told us Who He was? I couldn’t count, but at least He knew we just didn’t understand. Probably those first shepherds understood better than we who watched Him heal and teach and find such different answers to problems that were presented to Him.

Counselor, Prince of Peace, Bright and Morning Star...yes, it was bright this early morning. What would happen now? We still didn’t know. One thing was very plain to see: we were very ordinary men. None of us had outstanding faith. How

effective could we be?

As the morning sun began to rise, the colors in the sky beckoned our eyes. It had been too long since we fished all night. If the nets were empty, at least the sky was full of such color! I turned to look at the others. All eyes were diverted to the beautiful display of color. I followed the rays on the waves as we neared the shore.

That’s when I saw Him. Someone was on the beach. The frothy waves carried the beautiful color right up on the sand.

He called out, "Boys, do you have any meat?"

Someone answered "Nothing".

"Throw the net on the right side of the boat!" He shouted. I had a strange feeling.

No one argued at all. The net was thrown and in an instant it was full! We couldn’t

pull it in fast for fear of it breaking...and I knew! I turned to Peter, "It’s the Lord!"

I may have outrun Peter that other early morning, to the empty tomb, but

I don’t know how Peter got his coat so fast. He was overboard in a flash, and

up on the beach in a minute. There was loud laughing, praising, - we could hear well across the water.

We had a hundred fifty-three great fish! It should have broken the net, but not a thread was free.

The Master had no need of our fish for there were already fish on His fire, along

with the bread, but of course, He said "Bring some of those over here to the fire.

Come....and dine!" The warming air, the fire, those precious scarred hands breaking bread for us, reminding us of that last supper together. This glorious morning could never be forgotten!

What a feast we had! Oh, the companionship! The love! No other love on earth was like this love.

I was so thankful Thomas was among us to feel it. It was like a living thing. It WAS a living thing!

We satisfied our hunger and just basked in the morning sunlight. I understood contentment in a new and deeper way.

For the third time now, since the empty tomb, we enjoyed Him. We hoped it was forever. We watched Him intently and we listened. Would He stay now? Would He be gone in a moment? He did that in the room at Jerusalem, and again in Galilee, with the doors barred. He vanished as soon as they recognized Him at Emaus.

The warm sun was so welcome on our tired shoulders and though we had toiled all night, no one was inclined to lie down, indeed the air seemed charged with expectancy.

"Peter," Jesus addressed him seriously. "Do you love me?" I knew Peter was remembering some hard times for him. A rooster crowing. A moment when he had offered heaven-sent revelation: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God!"

Jesus had praised him then for accepting the truth of God and only moments later

had to reprimand him because he, like all of us, couldn’t understand yet, the great

gift that was to be given to mankind when the cross had done it’s work.

"Peter, do you love Me?"

"Lord, You know, - I love You."

"Feed My lambs." I thought of the day He explained to us about the Good Shepherd. I thought of David’s Psalm.

"Peter, do you love Me?" Peter answered again with a little more force:

"Lord, yes, You know I love You."

"Feed My sheep." I thought of new babes in Christ, and those who had been with us awhile, who would need mentoring.

Then the third time Jesus asked, "Peter....do you really love me?"

Peter seemed saddened but still he answered, "My Lord, You know everything. You also know my heart, and You know I do love You."

"Feed My sheep." Peter was quiet now.

"When you were young, you dressed and went where you pleased, but when you are old, someone else will dress you and lead you where you don’t want to go,"

Jesus said.

It was not said with any reprimand - just a fact.

Peter looked at me. "What about him?"

"What does it matter? Even if he lives until I return, you feed my sheep."

How could we know that morning what was to happen? The Kings, the Rulers,

the vast peoples to whom we would witness, ~ the fire of the Holy Spirit filling us to aid in speeches before magistrates and courts, the deaths we would be willing to die

to gain what He had bought for us that day, ~ the boldness we would find available to say what needed to be said. We could not understand yet, but soon we came to know: it was for the whole of mankind; it was God’s plan from the beginning and we were not foolish to give all...in order to gain eternity with Him!

Come quickly, Lord Jesus!

Joan Clifton Costner

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