A father had promised his two young sons he would take them on a fishing trip.
That morning, the sun had barely climbed over the horizon when the boys bolted out the back door, armed with trowels and empty jars. Their mission: to gather the best bait imaginable from the moist earth of their mother’s garden.
With the seriousness of treasure hunters, they dug and searched, whispering strategies and comparing their slimy finds. Suddenly, one of the boys let out a triumphant cry. From the dirt, he lifted a creature squirming with an alarming number of legs, its body shimmering slightly in the early light.
Grinning from ear to ear, he ran over to his father, who was busy prepping the tackle box.
“Look what I found!” the boy exclaimed, holding up the wriggling creature like a prized gem. “This one’s gotta be lucky!”
His father turned, squinting at the thing with a half-smile and a raised brow. After a moment, he shook his head gently.
“No, son,” he said, chuckling softly. “He won’t do for bait. That’s not an earthworm.”
The boy blinked, his expression suddenly confused and intrigued. He glanced down at the creature, then back at his father with wide, serious eyes.
“He’s not?” he asked slowly. “Then… what planet is he from?”
Jimmy and Matty, ages 8 and 4, were excessively mischievous.
They were always getting into trouble and their parents knew if any mischief occurred in their town, the two boys were probably involved.
The boys’ mother heard that a preacher in town had been successful in disciplining children, so she asked if he would speak with her boys. The preacher agreed, but he asked to see them individually. The mother sent Matty in the morning, and planned to send Jimmy to see the preacher in the afternoon.
The preacher, a huge man with a deep booming voice, sat the younger boy down and asked him sternly, “Do you know where God is, son?”
The boy’s mouth dropped open, but he made no response, sitting there wide-eyed with his mouth hanging open. So the preacher repeated the question in an even sterner tone, “Where is God?!”
Again, Matty made no attempt to answer. The preacher raised his voice even more and shook his finger in the boy’s face and bellowed, “Where is God?!”
The boy screamed and bolted from the room, ran directly home and dove into his closet, slamming the door behind him. When his older brother found him in the closet, he asked, “What happened?”
Matty, gasping for breath, replied, “We are in BIG trouble this time! GOD is missing, and they think WE did it!”
