Smudge and Snuggles Find a Statue
Value: We should have no other Gods before the true God
Smudge and his sister Snuggles were not very much different from all the young
chipmunks in the forest. They loved their mommy and daddy and the time the spent
together in the rafters of the church worshiping God with the people, even
though the people didn’t know they were up there. You probably have a few
chipmunks worshipping in your church with you that nobody knows about. Look for
them this Sunday. You will see them.
But the thing they loved to do, like all children of all species love to do is
play. Oh, they ran all over the forest, leaping from tree to tree, playing
"chase me, catch me" not always knowing who was doing the chasing and who the
catching. The forest was so fun to explore and they found lots of treats to
nibble on and left over toys from humans who had visited the forest.
One day they played “chase me, catch me” so hard that they ran far out of their
usual play areas in the forest. Suddenly they perched on an old stump and looked
around puzzled.
“Where is this place Smudge?” Snuggles asked her brother.
“I am not sure. This is a different part of the forest. Look at all the old
pillars and slabs. It looks like there was some kind of building here, like a
church or something.” Smudge answered.
“A church? Maybe it’s like the one we sneak into and worship Jesus with the
humans in town. Wouldn’t that be exciting? Let’s explore” Snuggles squeaked
excitedly. And explore they did. They burrowed under leaves and sticks finding
interesting colored stones and pieces of paper with squiggles on them like the
books that the humans sing from in church. Just then, Snuggles sang out with
great excitement. “LOOK WHAT I FOUND SMUDGE!”
Smudge leapt from rock to rock until he reached his sister and when he saw it,
he just gasped. “It’s a statue!” He exclaimed.
And it was a statue. It was about the same size as the chipmunks but it wasn’t
like the statues at their regular church. The little man statue was fat and his
face looked different, like pictures of oriental people they saw in the
children’s picture books they spied on after Sunday School. The little fat man
didn’t have a shirt on and he was sitting cross-legged. His hands rested on his
knees with the palms up and one finger touching the thumb and he was smiling
with his eyes closed. “It looks like he is praying” Smudge observed.
“If this is a church, maybe this is the god that they worshipped, like we have
statues of Jesus at the human church.” Snuggles thought.
“Maybe that’s it!” Smudge said as he tried to understand. “We better worship
it!” So the little chipmunks tried to make up worship songs for the statue. They
sang….”
“YOU ARE THE BEST STATUE GOD IN THE FOREST” but that one didn’t have very good
tune.
“FAT MAN STATUES LOVE US, THIS WE KNOW…” but the statue didn’t seem to love them
very much.
“Snuggles, why don’t I feel peace and joy inside like when we worship Jesus?’
Smudge wondered.
“I know why” Snuggles said with alarm jumping back from the statue. “Remember
Pastor Jones preached about the idols the bad religions worshiped in the old
part of their religion book? I think this is an idol Snuggles!”
“And God said in those 10 rules Moses got from the mountain, ‘I am the LORD your
God, You shall have no other gods before me’” said Snuggles with alarm in her
chipmunk voice. “Oh Smudge, we shouldn’t be worshipping this fat man statue at
all.”
“I don’t feel joy and peace at all right now Snuggles. In fact, I have a tummy
ache,” Smudge complained. Just then, a big black cloud formed over the forest,
thunder boomed making Smudge and Snuggles jump with fright and it began to
storm.
“Let’s run home!” Smudge screamed in fear.
The two little chipmunks never ran so fast. Over the rocks and fallen trees,
past bushes and all the other animals they knew until they found the forest
where they felt safe and then straight home and to their hutch in the chipmunk
home they shared with mommy and daddy. There they felt safe and promised each
other they would never go to that part of the forest again. And they were so
glad tomorrow was Sunday so they could go worship the one true God like they
were supposed to do.