Ministry Resources

Chapter 5: The Little Surprises

The next day found Eli and Ezri sitting in a daze at the breakfast table,

T2Us strapped on their wrists. The watches looked a bit different, though. Their dad had decided that since the twins would go about doing God’s business, he had better cover up the unique crystals that glowed and beamed out text messages without notice. So he created a cover on each watch that would flip open with the push of a button. He also installed an element inside each watch that would secretly vibrate when a text message would appear on screen.

As the twins ate their breakfasts, their conversation centered on the events of the day before.

“Can this really be true, Eli?” asked Ezri. “Could the Lord really use us in such a way?”

“That’s not what puzzles me as much as how the Holy Spirit can text message us like that,” responded Eli.

“I know!” said Ezri. “Makes you wonder what else might happen.”

Soon after, Eli and Ezri headed off to school, a bounce in their steps. They were so excited! Until they rounded the corner. There, just two blocks from school, a fight had erupted between five boys. As Eli and Ezri walked closer, they noticed that one boy wasn’t actually fighting at all. Four big boys were circled around the smaller boy, beating up on him from all sides.

“Oh, great! What are we going to do?” asked Eli. They instinctively slowed their pace and watched in fear of what might happen. As they came closer to the gang, they recognized the smaller boy.

“Isn’t that the quiet kid in the middle school? What’s his name?” said Ezri.

“Justin,” said Eli. “And that must be that middle school gang of bullies we’ve heard about lately.”

“Yeah, and to top it off, look whose standing nearby laughing at the whole thing,” said Ezri. “It’s Craig from our church.”

“What? Why would he be doing that?” asked Eli.

“I guess Craig’s trying to act cool too,” said Ezri. “Maybe he’s too scared to stand up for the little guy.”

“So … what are we going to do?” asked Eli.

“I don’t know. I guess we could go try and talk to the gang. Maybe we can reason with them.”

“Are you kidding?” exclaimed Eli. “Those guys have only one thing in mind: a beat down!”

Suddenly, Eli and Ezri felt their T2U’s vibrating. Eli looked down, pushed the lower left-hand button, and popped open the cover of his watch. It was glowing even brighter than the day before. A text message began to scroll across the screen.

“1 Corinthians 13:13: ’And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.’”

“What’s this all about, Ezri?” asked Eli. But before Ezri could utter a word, another text message appeared on Ezri’s T2U:

“John 3:16: ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.’”

Almost as soon as the message finished scrolling across the screen, both units began to shake in unison and glow ever so brightly. As Eli and Ezri huddled together, the same three-D video image appeared on both their screens.

Astonished, they watched the picture of a cross form, apparently floating in mid-air. Eli and Ezri found they could rotate the watches around and see all sides of the cross at once. As they gazed at their T2U’s, what had to be the image of Christ appeared on the cross, blood flowing from the thorns on His head and the spikes piercing His hands and feet. The words, “It is finished,” blared in unison out of the mini speakers of the wristwatches.

A scene quickly unfolded as Christ’s side was pierced by a Roman soldier. A bright beam filled the screens of both T2U’s briefly blinding Eli and Ezri. Rubbing their eyes, they saw Christ standing at the foot of an open tomb. In bold text on the bottom of the screens words appeared, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lamb of God, who was and who is and who is to come.”

As the image of Christ faded, more words scrolled across the screen: “Mark 12:30-31: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all The T2U Adventures of Eli and Ezri 33 your strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.’”

Eli suddenly felt himself filled with courage, and he yelled to the group of boys surrounding the small kid, “Hey, guys! If you want to beat up somebody, then beat on me!”

Eli ran straight toward the gang, not bothering to check their reaction to his challenge. The gang looked at Eli running full speed towards them, and they exchanged astonished looks. Abruptly, as if they had seen an army of angels charging them, they all began to run away. Just then, Eli slipped and lost his balance and rolled head over heels. As he came to a stop, he could hear the gang of kids laugh at him from a distance, but he didn’t care.

As he stood, shaking his head slightly to clear it from the rough tumble, Eli looked over to the boys, smiled at them, and said: “Jesus loves you. And I love you too!”

The gang exchanged puzzled looks and rapidly left the scene. Craig, having watched the entire scene unfold, followed after them. Eli walked toward the small boy whose eyes were already forming bruises, while blood dropped from his mouth. Though still a bit wobbly himself, Eli stretched out his hand to the boy and said, “Hi. My name’s Eli. Want to walk to school with us?”

Not knowing exactly how to respond, the boy just nodded his head, and they shook hands. Ezri arrived, having stopped to pick up the boy’s backpack where it had been thrown on the ground. She helped get the boy on his feet, and the three began to walk to school together.

“You’re Justin, right?” asked Ezri.

“Yeah,” replied the boy. The next words burst out of him as if he couldn’t contain his curiosity any longer: “So … why did you do it?”

“Do what?” Eli responded.

“You know. Stick up for me.”

“Oh,” said Eli. “That’s easy. I just thought that if Jesus could die on the cross for you and me, that I could at least help you out of a jam.”

Eli glanced down at his T2U watch, then looked up and winked at Ezri.

Let’s Talk

  1. Have you ever seen a student mistreating another student at school or in the neighborhood? What do you think you should say to the person being rude?
  2. The chapter we just read talks about a little boy being picked on. If you were in this circumstance, would you be willing to be friends with Justin, knowing he’s the kid others beat up?
  3. Do you think God can use you to show kindness to someone who is hurting? What are some examples of how you can be kind to other kids at school who may be shy, have few friends, or get bullied?
  4. Could you imagine how neat it would be if you had a T2U watch that could show you a Bible story in action? You may not have a cool watch like this, but did you know that reading Bible stories can be just as cool? When you read a Bible story, you can imagine in your mind what was going on in that story. God can even use that time to speak directly from His heart to yours.
  5. Let’s pray together that God will become more real to you and me than ever before. Let’s ask God to make His Word “alive” in our hearts. Let’s pray that God will show you kids at school and in the neighborhood who need kindness from someone. And let’s pray that He will give you the courage to show them that kindness. By showing kindness to someone, you can have the chance to tell them about Jesus. And that makes Jesus very happy! Is there anything else we can pray about together?
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