They both had Mums and Dads but they were very different too. This is a story about people with differences
becoming fast friends. The story could have turned out very differently but thankfully, it all worked out very
well indeed.
Perhaps you are like Tim, the one on the left of the page, or maybe you are more like Jake on the right.
Well, they certainly change one way and another. They
go through a great deal of 'stuff' but all ends well as you will find out as you read their story.Read on then, discover how they met, how they found out they were like aliens from different planets, but how they solved their differences which changed everything. Did Yahweh (God) love them both? Of course He did! I have a suspicion that it was He who brought them together in the first place. Do you think God cares about who we have as our friends? I am sure that as you read Tim and Jake's amazing story you will realise that He does! Enjoy!
Tim spent a lot of time on his own. It wasn't because people ignored him, or didn't care, it was just that they were rather busy with their own affairs to bother about what he was doing, or where he was going.
Because of this fact Tim spent a great deal of time in thinking his own thoughts, and sometimes some people(especially his teachers) teased him saying he was a 'dreamer' or 'on another planet'. In actual fact, Tim was a deep thinker and wondered deeply about what life was all about. Oh he liked football, and he liked his computer games and texting his friends and everything else, but he often found himself thinking about Important things, like the origins of the universe, and what life was all about and that sort of thing. Some of his pals thought that he was a bit strange, so that was why he thought about things on his own and why he seemed to be dreaming. If only they knew the problems he was solving and how interesting his thoughts were!
Tim had a favourite place where he could go when he wanted to think, or to solve a great problem. This place was quiet, sometimes he could speak his thoughts out loud, like "I wonder how God made the world out of nothing?" It wasn't that he doubted what the Bible taught, he just wanted to know things.
One day, when he was sitting there by himself, the great adventure began, and it began when another boy, about the same age as Tim, but as he was to find out, he was quite unlike him, happened to wander along the path and nearly fell over him! "Oh, sorry!" he blurted out as he steadied himself, "You look deep in thought, what are you doing here, fishing?" (Tim sat as it happened, under a tree, quite near the fast flowing stream which tumbled out of the hilside near by.) Tim was surprised, as he hadn't heard the boy as he approached, and answered him with one of his friendly smiles. "Oh, that's O.K. No, I'm not fishing today, but I do fish here sometimes. Where are you from?" The boys looked at each other, and instantly liked the look of the other. The boy sat down, and he introduced himself. "I'm Jake" he said.
"I'm Tim" Tim replied. "Do you live around here?"
"Yes" replied Jake "I live over the other side of the park." Suddenly, Tim noticed that Jake had a curious little cap on his head, and he had kind of ringlets at the side of his face. Tim being rather outspoken asked, "Why do you wear that little cap and why do you have long hair at the sides of your face?"
"Oh, it's my religion" replied Jake. "I'm Jewish, and in the Torah we are instructed not to cut the corners of our head."
"What's the 'Torah'?" asked Tim in his usual straight forward manner.
"Well, it's our religious scroll, like a book, given to us by God, who we call 'Adonai' by the way. He gave it to Moses up Mount Sinai. It contains five brilliant books which Moses the prophet wrote down. He was inspired by Adonai. 'God,' I suppose you call him, and He told him what to write."
"What are the books?" asked Tim, becoming even more curious, as he never knew there were other 'holy books' beside the Bible he read every day.
"Well, the first one is called 'Genesis,' then comes 'Exodus...'"
"Hang on a minute, they are the same books as are in our religious book, the Bible! I learned that in Sunday School!" Tim interjected.
"Oh, I know, but you have lots of other books in your book. Our Torah just has Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Psalms and the Prophets in it."
"Oh" said Tim suddenly losing interest. "Do you like fishing?" Tim asked Jake.
"Yes, great! Shall we go sometime? Shall we go tomorrow?"
"Oh, I can't tomorrow Jake, I'm going to a birthday party. What about Saturday?"
"I can't go Saturday, 'cos it's Shabbat."
"What's that?"
Tim asked, thinking how strange Jake seemed.
"Sabbath is the day Adonai has made holy. You Christians keep Sundays special, but we keep Saturday and I spend it with my family and go to "Shool".
"Why is that? Why is your day different to ours?" asked Tim.
"Well," began Jake, wondering if it was worth it to explain it all to this lad who didn't seem to know anything. "Well," he continued, "In Torah it says God rested on the seventh day, not the first day, and Saturday is the seventh day. He told us to keep Saturday's, not Sundays. You christians changed it to Sunday, but originally it was Saturday." Tim didn't really believe him, so said nothing more about it. "Well, when can you go fishing?"
"What about Sunday? Or do you have to do something special on that day?"
Well, I go to Sunday School in the morning and sometimes I go to Church with my Mum, but I'm free in the afternoon, yes, that would be great! Would One-thirty be O.K.?"
"Yes. I'll meet you here at one thirty, Sunday," replied Jake, and with that, they both stood up and began to walk in their own separate directions. "Bet we'll catch a woppa! Heard there's some big ones under the bridge!" And with that, the boys went their separate ways, each looking forward to Sunday, and thinking how great it was to have a friend.
As Tim walked away, he looked over his shoulder at the receding figure, and wondered if they would get along. They were so very different. He decided to ask his Dad about what Jake had said about Saturday being the original proper day to keep. He was sure Jake was wrong. After all, the Jones' had always gone to church on Sundays, and no-one had ever mentioned Saturday being special before... More next time!