Cassidy’s Questions

"There you are!" Miss Jayla called brightly as Cassidy joined the other kids. Normally one of the first to arrive, Cassidy had been late to children's church that morning. She had tripped on the stairs while walking to class, and some of the kids had laughed at her. Embarrassed, Cassidy had sought a few minutes of alone time in the bathroom.Now, she plodded to her seat, where the day's activities dragged by as Cassidy waited to ask Miss Jayla the questions whirling in her mind."What's going on, Cassidy? You look troubled," Miss Jayla said when most of the kids had been picked up at the end of the morning."I need to ask you something. I know I could talk to my foster mom, but I don't want her to get mad at me." "Let's sit down." Miss Jayla directed them to bean bags by the door so she could watch for other parents arriving. "I need to know how God punishes us," Cassidy began. "I want to know if God is punishing me if I bump into a table and hurt myself. Or when I stub my toe. Or today…I stumbled on the steps. Does God let me get hurt because I did something bad?""I'm glad you asked! No, God doesn't let you trip on stairs or bang into a table to punish you, sweetie. Sometimes accidents happen. But those are not punishments for things we do wrong. Do you remember who Jesus is, Cassidy?""Jesus is God's Son who came down to earth, died on a cross, then returned to life," Cassidy answered. Miss Jayla nodded. "Do you know the reason He died?" Cassidy shrugged."Wrong things we do--what the Bible calls sin--must be punished because our sins go against what God says is good," Miss Jayla explained. "But God wanted to save us from that punishment, which is death and separation from Him. So He sent Jesus, who lived a perfect life, to take our place and pay for our sins so we can be forgiven." Miss Jayla smiled at Cassidy. "That's how much He loves us."Cassidy took a moment to think about that. "If Jesus died so I could be forgiven, I want to ask Him to pay for my sins too!" -Allison Wilson Lee