Article January 1, 2003 ISSUE

Rightside up

By Jillie Periton,—England

There was Jack's teddy, its head upside down in the blue dump truck, while Olly the ginger cat was pouncing into Jack's new socks.

Poppy, Jack's older sister, looked at Jack's bedroom and sighed. Everything was in a heap on the floor! No wonder Olly found it such fun, and Jack could never find anything.

“There must be an answer,” she muttered, as she pulled Olly out of the socks.

It was Saturday and no school, Jack's new friend, Digby, was making a tent in the apple tree. Digby was full of games and plenty of fun, and often came to play at Jack's house with Doodle, his waggy-tailed dog.

“What we need is a rope and bucket so that we can pull cookies and juice up into the tent,” said Digby. Both boys thought it was a great idea and scampered off to fetch the bucket and rope from Jack's bedroom.

As they opened the door to Jack's room, Digby's eyes got wider and wider. He had never seen such a mess.

“Jack, how do you know where anything is?” asked Digby.

“I don't,” said Jack. “I'm always looking for my baseball cap and ball.” Jack had even put his sneakers on the wrong feet this morning, since he was in such a hurry to go out to play with Digby. (But he wasn't going to tell Digby about that.)

Jack and Digby burrowed through a pile of clothes, tripping over Olly's tail. Poppy, hearing the bangs, ran into the room to see what was happening. Soon all three of them were looking for the rope and bucket.

“What's Olly doing?” said Digby. And there under the bed was Olly, playing with the rope that was tied to the bucket.

So off they went to get the cookies and juice to pull up into the tent in the apple tree.

Later that evening as Jack was getting ready for bed, Poppy said to him, “I was thinking about your room, Jack. And then I thought about how the stars and the grass are always in the right place. The stars stay in the sky and shine, and the grass grows up out of the ground. The stars don't tumble out of the sky and lie in a heap under the apple tree. And the grass, doesn't grow on clouds in the sky. Each stays right where it belongs—the stars in the sky shining and the grass on the ground growing.” Jack thought it was very funny to even think that stars and grass could be in different places.

As Jack was lying in bed, looking out his window at the stars in the sky, he said to Poppy: “Am I like those stars with my very own place with God?”

“Of course,” said Poppy. “God holds you in His love—that's your special place. He keeps you straight and upright and always with Him—always rightside up, never all over the place, or upside down. And because God takes care of you, all the good that He gives you—He takes care of that, too.”

Jack was so pleased to think of himself as rightside up—always in his very own right place with God. And, Jack thought, if God kept all the good things in place he, too, could try a little harder to keep his own things safe and in their special places in his room.

“I'm going to do a better job of keeping my room rightside up,” said Jack. “Then I'll find my cap and ball quickly and have more time for fun with Digby and Doodle.”

Bit by bit, Jack's room did get better, even making it difficult for Olly to find things to bat and pounce.

But the best thing was Jack knew where he was—rightside up in God's love!

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