On the road again, with my grandsons and I belted in safely (even in the Land of Abundant Living, we need to follow safety rules), Little c, the two-year-old, asks Grandma to play his CD.
"Certainly," I reply, pushing in the kids' favorite CD with Jesus Praise Songs. After singing along to several melodies, we come to my favorite, "Dare to be a Daniel." When the song ends, I turn the music off.
"Why are you stopping the music, Grandma?" asks seven-year-old Big C.
Little c goes on singing as though nothing had happened, "Dare to be a Daniel; Dare to stand a-looone . . . "
"I want to tell you a story." Little c stops singing in mid-stanza at the thought.
"Here's a pretty little park. Let's stop the car and have a snack with our story."
When we are settled on the ground with the bright sun shining on us and the soft breeze ruffling our hair, I pass out baggies of grapes and granola bars and begin.
"You both have heard the story of Daniel in the Lion's Den." Two heads nod intently as they munch their juicy grapes.
"Well," I continue, "You know then that Daniel was a young man who had so much trust in God that he wouldn't give up his faith as the king commanded. So the king threw him into the hungry lion's den, but God closed the mouths of the lions and saved Daniel's life." Two heads nodded again.
"Now when Daniel grew older, King Nebuchadnezzar asked him to describe a dream the king had and tell him what the dream meant. Now Daniel, of course, couldn't do either one of those things by himself, but God told Daniel the dream and explained the meaning for him so he could share it with the king.
"This is the dream: The king saw an enormous statue made of gold, silver, bronze, iron and baked clay. Then a Rock was cut out by God and struck the statue, breaking it to pieces and sweeping away the chaff with the wind. Next, the Rock became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth."
"Wow! That sounds scary!" said Big C.
"Wok dis big!" Little c stretched out his chubby arms as far as he could reach.
"Well, it was even much bigger than that, Little c. And it did worry the king so he had trouble sleeping. So Daniel told the king the meaning of the dream, too. Each of the metals represented a certain kingdom that would appear and rule at a future time."
"God know tomorrow?" Little c's eyes grew large.
"Yes, Sweetie, God knows everything about yesterday and tomorrow. He is very smart."
"I think I know what the big Rock is! Is it Jesus?" guessed Big C.
"Excellent guess, Big C! Yes, the Rock that broke the last kingdom and filled the whole earth is God's own kingdom with King Jesus Christ as the ruler. You see, when the time for the other kingdoms to have power is over and Jesus comes back to earth, He will set up a new kingdom that will never be destroyed and will last forever!"
"I want to be in God's Kingdom!" said Big C.
"Me, too," Little c agreed.
"So when I hear this song about Daniel, I remember that story of the Rock."
"That's the same Rock we talked about at the lake," said Big C.
"Yes, it is. Please sing the Daniel song with me again."
TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK . . . .
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