Jenny was a bright-eyed, pretty five-year-old girl. One day when she and her mother were checking out at the grocery store,Jenny saw a plastic pearl necklace priced at $2.50. How she wanted that necklace, and when she asked her mother if she would buy it for her, her mother said, “Well, it is a pretty necklace, but it costs an awful lot of money. I’ll tell you what. I’ll buy you the necklace, and when we get home we can make up a list of chores that you can do to pay for the necklace. And don’t forget that for your birthday Grandma just might give you a whole dollar bill, too. Okay?”

Jenny agreed, and her mother bought the pearl necklace for her.

Jenny worked on her chores very hard every day, and sure enough, her grandma gave her a brand new dollar bill for her birthday. Soon Jenny had paid off the pearls. How Jenny loved those pearls. She wore them everywhere-to kindergarten, bed and when she went out with her mother to run errands. The only time she didn’t wear them was in the shower-her mother had told her that they would turn her neck green!

Now Jenny had a very loving daddy. When Jenny went to bed, he would get up from his favorite chair every night and read Jenny her favorite story. One night when he finished the story, he said, “Jenny, do you love me?”

“Oh yes, Daddy, you know I love you,” the little girl said.

“Well, then, give me your pearls.”

“Oh! Daddy, not my pearls!” Jenny said. “But you can have Rosie, my favorite doll. Remember her? You gave her to me last year for my birthday. And you can have her tea party outfit, too. Okay?”

“Oh no, darling, that’s okay.” Her father brushed her cheek with a kiss.

“Good night, little one.”

A week later, her father once again asked Jenny after her story, “Do you love me?”

“Oh yes, Daddy, you know I love you.”

“Well, then, give me your pearls.”

“Oh, Daddy, not my pearls! But you can have Ribbons, my toy horse. Do you remember her? She’s my favorite. Her hair is so soft, and you can play with it and braid it and everything. You can have Ribbons if you want her, Daddy,” the little girl said to her father.

“No, that’s okay,” her father said and brushed her cheek again with a kiss.

“God bless you, little one. Sweet dreams.”

Several days later, when Jenny’s father came in to read her a story, Jenny was sitting on her bed and her lip was trembling. “Here, Daddy,” she said, and held out her hand. She opened it and her beloved pearl necklace was inside. She let it slip into her father’s hand.

With one hand her father held the plastic pearls and with the other he pulled out of his pocket a blue velvet box. Inside of the box were real, genuine, beautiful pearls. He had had them all along. He was waiting for Jenny to give up the cheap stuff so he could give her the real thing. So it is with our Heavenly Father. He is waiting for us to give up the cheap things in out lives so he can give us beautiful treasure. Isn’t God good?

Sometimes I want to be a kid again. I want to go back to the time when:

• Decisions were made by going “eeny-meeny-miney-mo.”

• Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, “do over!”

• “Race issue” meant arguing about who ran the fastest.

• Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in “Monopoly”

• Catching the fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening.

• It wasn’t odd to have two or three “best” friends.

• Being old referred to anyone over 16.

• The net on a tennis court was the perfect height to play volleyball and the rules didn’t matter.

• The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was cooties.

• It was magic when dad would “remove” his thumb.

• It was unbelievable that dodgeball wasn’t an Olympic event.

• Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a slingshot.

• Nobody was prettier than Mom.

• Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better.

• It was a big deal to finally be tall enough to ride the “big people” rides at the amusement park.

• Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true.

• Abilities were discovered because of a “double-dog-dare.”

• Saturday morning cartoons weren’t 30-minute ads for action figures.

• “Oly-oly-oxen-free” made perfect sense.

• Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles.

• The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team.

• War was a card game.

• Water balloons were the ultimate weapon.

• Cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle.

• Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin.

• Ice cream was considered a basic food group.

• Older siblings were the worst tormentors but also the fiercest protectors.

In an interview, actor Kevin Bacon shared a conversation he had with his six-year-old son after he had seen the movie Footloose for the first time.

The boy said, “Dad, that was really cool how you jumped up on the roof and swung from the rafters. How did you do that?”

“Well, son, I didn’t actually do that part,” said Bacon. “A stunt man did.”

“What’s a stunt man?” asked his son.

“That’s someone who dresses like me and does things I can’t do. Things that are too dangerous.

“Oh. Well, what about that part in the movie where you spin around on that gym bar and land on your feet,” persisted the boy. “How did you do that?”

“Well, son, that was the stunt man again, not me. He’s really good at gymnastics.”

“Oh.” A long pause. “Dad, just what DID you do in the movie?”

Bacon sheepishly replied, “I got all the glory.”

Jesus stood in for us so that we could have eternal life and share in God’s glory. He was nailed to the cross in our place, to pay for our sins, because He was the only one who could do it and emerge victorious.

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-edited from Still More Hot Illustrations for Youth Talks by Wayne Rice.