WHAT IS JESUS LIKE?
 ( a story for grade school children)
by Louise Stahnke

January 2008

When Jesus was ready to begin his ministry after his time in the desert, one of the first things he did was to ask some men to join him. The Bible tells us that he walked up to Peter, Andrew, James, and John, as they were busy working in their families’ fishing business. They simply stopped what they were doing, stood up and left all they were doing. Matthew, a tax collector, did the same thing, leaving the piles of money behind. And they didn’t just come back an hour or a day or a month later. For 3 years they went wherever Jesus went, they watched everything he did. They heard all the things he taught the crowds, and they learned more things as they asked him questions about things they didn’t understand. They even were given the power to heal sick people themselves.

All of this was part of what Jesus meant by "follow me".

Now that’s a pretty big change! And most of us think we need to keep doing what we are doing. We don’t just stop and walk away all at once. So why did they do it? We don’t know what they knew about Jesus before he said that. Maybe they had heard about him some, but maybe not.

I think they did it because they could tell that being with Jesus was a very wonderful thing. I think they could tell he was a really special person. Have you ever been around someone who could make you feel really safe and good, who seemed to make everything right? There are people like that.

When I was a small child, I had parents who seemed to like to hurt me, and liked me to be hurt a whole lot. But a little child really needs parents to keep him or her safe, to give good hugs and say "I love you!", even when he or she has just done something wrong. I didn’t have that. And Jesus knew I didn’t have that.

So He let me know how much He loved me. I learned to pay attention to his voice quiet in my head. I learned to kind of feel that He was near me, especially when I was sad, or hurting. So I learned to know what He is like.

These are some of the things I’ve learned about that. Some of them are from the Bible, some from feeling Him close to me. Jesus is never afraid of anyone, even if they seem powerful. Jesus is strong, but never mean. He is kind. When we are with Him, paying attention to Him, we know He loves us a huge amount and will neverdo anything to hurt us. And He doesn’t get mad at us when we do something stupid or wrong. He wants us to make it right again, but He isn’t mad. He understands when we are scared, or mad, or sad, or lonely. And He wants to be our very best friend, who is always able to help us no matter what is hard for us. He is careful to be especially kind to all the people that other people didn’t like and were mean to.

I think the reason these men, and later other men and women followed Jesus, was that they could feel that he was like all of that. And it just felt really good to be with Him.

Jesus still asks people to follow Him. People who have been baptized work to follow him. That means they try to be like Jesus. Some people are better at being kind and gentle and not afraid than others, right? But he wants to help each person grow to be like He is. And He will. But He can’t do it if we aren’t paying attention to Him. I think the ones who are most like Him are the ones who pay the most attention to Him.

We don’t need to stop going to school, or baking, or other work we do to follow Jesus.

But we do need to pay attention to Jesus every day. Tell Him how you feel about things. And be quiet inside awhile and see if you can tell that he is with you, wanting to help you. And when you can tell that, think about how good it feels to be with Him.