Meet Noodleman, our special guest visitor in chapel this week. He's smiling now, but he wasn't always so happy. There was a time when he was very sad, and that's the story he came to tell us.
One day, when Noodleman was new in town, he was walking home from school. Some bigger kids did something very mean. They took his backpack and called him names like “Noodlehead” and “Googly Eyes.”
They pushed him down and one of them stepped on his arm and broke it! Then they left him there.
Poor Noodleman!
Soon a business person came by. She was going to a very important meeting. She saw Noodleman lying on the ground and looked at Noodleman’s purple hair. “Look at that kid,” she thought. “What’s HE doing here?”
The business person assumed that Noodleman
was dangerous because he was different. She crossed the street
and went on to her meeting. Then she said, “I'm
going to have to tell the neighborhood patrol to watch out for that purple
kid.”
A little
later on, some parents drove by. They were going
to the school to pick up their children at carpool. They saw Noodleman and slowed
down, but didn’t recognize him.
One was in a big hurry and had lots of other kids to pick up. Another was too busy thinking about all the errands he had to do after carpool and didn't want to stop. "I don’t have time for this
today, " he said. "Maybe someone else will help that
purple kid.” They drove on by.
No one wants to help Noodleman!
But then a
little girl came walking by on her way home from school. She saw
Noodleman and immediately went over to him.
“Oh! Let me help you,” she said. “My
mom is a nurse and she can take care of your boo-boos.”
The little girl helped Noodleman to her
house. Her mom put Bactine on
Noodleman’s skinned knee and then put a band aid on the cut.
They took him to the doctor who put a sling around Noodleman’s broken arm and wrapped a big bandage around his head.
Now you know why Noodleman is smiling, even with all of his injuries!
There is a
story in the Bible that is a lot like Noodleman’s story. It’s called the Parable of the Good
Samaritan. It’s a story that Jesus told
to teach people how to treat each other.
And here’s what he said: “Love
your neighbor as you love yourself.” In
other words, treat others the way you would want them to treat you.
One of the
people that Jesus was teaching asked him, “Who is my neighbor?”
Well, let’s
think. Who were Noodleman’s
neighbors? The business person? The carpool parents? The little girl?
They are all
Noodleman’s neighbors, but the little girl was the one who did what Jesus
wanted. She treated Noodleman with
kindness and took care of him. She was a
good neighbor.
Does that
mean that the business person and carpool parents were bad people?
No, they just forgot what Jesus said about
being good neighbors. They were thinking of themselves so much that they forgot what the Bible says about taking
care of others.
Jesus wants
us to treat everyone as a neighbor – kids who live on our street, classmates at
school, people who live here in Raleigh, NC and even people who live in other
parts of the world. Whether they look
just like us, or look very different, everyone is our neighbor and we should
treat them they way we would like to be treated.
Special thanks to the Transitional K class for their help in re-enacting Noodleman's story!
