Sunday, March 3, 2013

Lil Bit, A Jesus story for Children


                                      Lil Bit at the Heavenly Dog Park

                             By Nita Wilson

 

Lil Bit was asked to help with some of the dogs getting fat and lazy since coming to Heaven.  As a rule when dogs first get to heaven, they are young again and happy to wag once tired tails.  They are happy to run again without pain and catch stars and meteors thrown for them by Lil Bit and her friends.  But once a new dog gets used to the venue, many go back to old habits from their elderly days on earth and laze around all day waiting for their tummies to be rubbed and scratched and a friendly voice to call them to supper.  One of the jobs Lil Bit shared with her friend, Punkin Seed, was to make sure these dogs didn’t get too fat and lazy.  Jesus felt there were too many wonderful things for them to do in heaven and shouldn’t be lazing around all day.  Of course, on occasion if a dog had been extra busy or helped a frightened child adjust to its surroundings in Heaven, Jesus would let the pooch slack off a bit and have a few days of belly rubs and bone chewing, but this was rare for Jesus to allow. 

Now, in Heaven, you’re allowed to create your own reality.  If for instance you like the beach and an ocean view, then that’s where you live in Heaven.  If you like the snow topped mountains, then you live there.  John King for instance, lives in a big pirate ship on a calm ocean close to a safe harbor and path going to his mum’s cottage; that’s how it is for him. Well, pets and animals are no different.  It would be silly for a cat to live in the water, or a bird in a cage; they choose their own realities just as human souls. So… many times if a little Dachshund, for instance, lived on a nice cushion next to a low window affording him a view of his domain on earth, he will choose the same in Heaven.  Some choose different venues.  If a pet was a stray and slept under abandoned cars or in a garbage dump; their new home in Heaven is usually a mansion with servants and silver bowls full of meaty dog snacks and tasty bones that never get smaller than the first bite.  You name it, Heaven has it.

Punkin Seed and Lil Bit had been best friends ever since the day Jesus created them for the new world.  When they were baby, baby angels, Jesus would take them on his daily rounds of Heaven, one on each shoulder.  Souls would come up and gently pinch their baby cheeks and kiss a wing.  One young angel taught them how to give Jesus angel kisses with their eyelashes on his cheek and they almost couldn’t get enough; they loved to hear his gentle laugh as he received these blessings.  But Jesus was always patient with his children, angels and human souls and he would never tell them enough is enough.  After all, how bad is that… getting little eyelash kisses from baby angels all day? 

When they were really young, about two hundred human years old, they called him ‘father’ or ‘Abba’, but once they took on the assignments and began to be working angels; Lil Bit suggested to Punkin Seed they call him, My Lord.  It made them feel grown up and special, but on occasion when an assignment went wrong or a human refused help, they would return to ‘Abba” for comfort and love; sometimes shedding a tear for the mistake the human was making.

Punkin Seed especially liked to help the pets looking for lost humans.  The elderly pet which died after their beloved elderly human, has a hard time adjusting until he/she can be re-united.  Punkin Seed started a lost and found soul’s pet bulletin board for these lost humans.  So far it had worked very well and people and pets were being reunited every day.  This made Jesus especially happy and Lil Bit had to fight her feelings of envy.  Punkin Seed was getting more smiles from Jesus than she.  Jesus knew this and would soon have a talk with Lil Bit about selfish envy and jealousy.  But for now, he’d leave them to their work. There was one dog soul in particular Punkin Seed and Lil Bit had been watching.  It was a big brown and white hound dog whose reality was a big back porch with lots of squirrel trees around, but he was unhappy.  Souls in Heaven were very seldom unhappy, so this was a special challenge for both little angels.  Lil Bit picked an especially tasty looking bone from a dish and walked onto Duke’s back porch.  He barely lifted his big head but allowed her to sit next to him and rub his long velvet ear.  She put the bone just at his mouth and the big tongue licked a taste and ignored it.

“My, you are unhappy, Duke if you don’t even want this nice bone.”  Lil Bit held his paw in her little hand and gave it a friendly squeeze.

“You wanna talk about it?”  She bent and lifted an eyelid and smiled into his eye.  He blew out a long sigh and closed his eye again.  But got up slowly and shook the dust from his coat.

“My sister, Duchess and I left earth together, but I haven’t seen her since.  It was always my job to take care of her, but I didn’t and now I can’t. I can’t be happy until I know she’s happy.”

“Well, you mean she’s here with us, you just can’t find her?”

“I mean, when we left the litter and went to live with Farmer Flurry, I promised my mom I would always look after my sister and take care of her.  I’ve broken that promise.”  He blew out another sigh and sat down on the porch looking forlornly out into the yard.

“Was it your fault you both left earth and are you sure you left earth together?  I mean maybe she’s still back on earth.”  She needed Punkin Seed, he was good with cases such as this.  Her expertise was saving beings before they reached Heaven, or saving them from coming to Heaven too soon.

“She was very curious and I was always saving her from bogs and snakes, but she was bad to chase cars on the old highway.  I did everything I knew to break her of it, but she said it was the greatest game in the world and only a fast dog could one day catch up to the car and win the game.  She felt if she could ever catch the car she would be the greatest dog on earth.”

“Did she win?”  Lil Bit didn’t want to know the answer.

“No, she lost big time and when I tried to keep the man from kicking her to see if she were still alive, there was a loud noise from the man’s hand and I fell over.  All I could hear as I left the earth was the man yelling, ‘Mad dog, he was a mad dog.’ as I followed Duchess up into the clouds.  Of course I was mad, darn it… the man swerved on purpose to hit Duchess, any dog would be mad.”

“Then what happened?”  Punkin Seed asked as he joined the two on the porch.

“We got to the gates together and she ran after a golf cart full of new arrivals and I was told to go another way.  Now here we are and I have no idea where she is. Can you be run over twice?”

“Follow me, I bet I know where she is.”  Punkin Seed left the porch on a thought with Lil Bit and Duke following on the same thought.  Lil Bit looked ahead of her to see the golf cart station and a hound dog similar to Duke following each of the carts down the drive.  She appeared to be very happy, wagging her tail and barking at each cart until she got to the big fluffy road and turned back to the barn.  Duke approached his sister growling and ready for a big lecture, but once he saw how happy she was, he began to nuzzle her neck and lick her face.

“I thought I’d never see you again.”  He whined to his sister.

“Don’t be silly, I could see you on the porch the whole time.  See?”  They looked down the lane of the golf cart station and sure enough, in Duchess’ reality, Duke’s porch was in clear view.  She hadn’t tried to find him since she saw him on the porch enjoying his rug and watching for squirrels in the trees.

“Oh, this is an easy fix, Duke.”  Punkin Seed said, petting both dogs.

“You just need to include the Golf Cart Station in your view of the back yard.”

“Yes, Duke, then you can see me all day. You’ll be proud of me, I catch these things everyday and people souls laugh and pet my head.”

Duke decided he would just make the porch in Duchess’ reality his.

“I think our work is done here.”  Lil Bit and Punkin Seed gave an angel salute of a job well done, tipping their halos and touching wings.

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