Charlie was mad. Everyone had to stay at home. He had to be quiet and leave his parents alone during the day when they were working. He loved playing video games on his computer, but he didn’t love that there wasn’t much else he could do. So many things were shut down because of the pandemic. He couldn’t go to school or play with his friends. 

The only time things felt OK was when his gran came over to be with him. His gran knew he was mad and tried to talk with him about God and God’s care for everybody—including Charlie. But all Charlie could think about was that there was nothing fun to do anymore. 

One day his gran asked if he wanted to go on an adventure. Charlie thought that sounded great. He wanted to do something fun. So his gran started to talk with him about what she called a “divine adventure.” She said he could leave right then. 

“How?” Charlie asked. 

“Close your eyes,” she told him. “Pretend you’re in a space pod.” 

She told him that space pods always get communications from the mother ship. Because this was a divine adventure, the “mother ship” was God; God is always giving us good thoughts, and Charlie would be receiving them. Charlie had learned about this in Christian Science Sunday School. He could recognize thoughts from God, because they made him feel good instead of bad, happy instead of mad. God’s thoughts are unselfish, too. They inspire us to think about others and to express God’s goodness to everyone, everywhere. 

Gran told Charlie that he had everything in his pod that he would ever need. God, as the mother ship, was supplying him with love and was constantly communicating with him and caring for him. Charlie’s job was to express God and beam love wherever he was sent. Charlie thought that sounded like fun—flying through the universe in his own shuttle, totally safe. 

Gran told him that as he flew through the day, he could listen for his instructions from the mother ship. That’s how he would get his missions. Gran told him they would be important missions that only he could do. He was needed. Love was needed.

So each morning Charlie woke up and “radioed” the mother ship—prayed and listened to God—for his assignment for that day. He asked where love was needed. 

Charlie got lots of great missions. He walked the dog. He wrote to other people stuck at home. And as he continued his missions, he wasn’t mad anymore. The divine adventure took him to new places in his thoughts where he’d never been before. And that really was fun!