Mooster:
Howdy Howdy Howdy! How’s every little thing with you folks tonight?
Monkey Moe: Oh hi! Mooster! I’m doing great, thanks for asking. What are
all those seed catalogs doing back here in the tree house? Need something for
the bottom of the birdcage?
Mooster: What? Oh – NO Moe. I ordered those! I’m gonna
have a garden this year!
Monkey Moe: You plant the catalogs and you get
vegetables?
Mooster: No of course not, Monkey Moe. The
catalogs have pictures of all the different seeds that are available for sale.
Moe: Why do you want to grow seeds? I
thought you wanted vegetables.
Mooster: I do want vegetables. You have to
plant seeds in order to grow vegetables. Don’t you know anything about
gardening? Haven’t your folks ever planted a garden?
Moe: Dude. I’m a monkey. We live in
trees…swinging from branch to branch, munching on bananas. Our family goes to
Wal-mart. If I want vegetables I order onions and pepperoni on my pizza. No, we
do not have any gardening experience.
Mooster: Moe, you do know that pepperoni is
a meat and not a vegetable, right?
Moe: Oh…I thought pepperonis were
little pepper thingies.
Mooster:
What did you think the meat was?
Moe: I can’t tell what they put on the
pizza. By the time I get done ordering my super-cheesy sausage pizza with
onions, pepperonis, olives, Canadian bacon, and sliced bananas, I can’t tell
what’s what. The bananas get kinda brown and sorta confuse the identification
process. But hey – it all tastes good going down so who cares what it looks
like, right?
Mooster: Ewwww. Anyway, if you want, I’ll
be happy to have you help me with my garden this year, Moe!
Moe: Oh. Um. That’s swell of you to
offer, but….um…doesn’t gardening involve dirt?
Mooster: That’s right. Lots and lots of it!
Monkey Moe: I might get dirty.
Mooster: That’s very likely. Wear some overalls.
Monkey Moe: Overalls! Overalls!! Cute little
adorable me in blue jean overalls? Who do you think I look like, Farmer Brown?
I can’t wear overalls.
Mooster: Well, you can just help plant. You
don’t’ have to prepare the soil.
Monkey Moe: Oh that sounds better. What do you
do to plant a garden? Just open the seed packets and throw them around the
garden?
Mooster: Uh no. First of all, I will have
to go out to my garden and plow up all the dirt from last year’s garden. It
gets kinda hard and crusty. But once I drive over it a lot with my tractor, it
makes the dirt all nice and soft and crumbly.
Moe: And then you throw the seeds in it?
Mooster: No. Then I rake out all the clumps
and the pieces of grass or weeds so that I have just nice soft dirt.
Moe: Then you toss the seeds all over
it?
Mooster: No. Then I make rows! I use my rake
or my hoe and depending on if I’m planting squash or beans I either make little
hills or little troughs to place the seeds in. And we don’t THROW the seed all
over the garden. You make a nice straight row and plant the seeds according to
the directions on the package. Some seeds get planted close together and others
get planted far apart. When I am done, I mark the row with string and poles and
write the name of what I planted in that row so I’ll know when the seeds start
sprouting.
Monkey Moe: Won’t you recognize them as
plants? Won’t that be the only thing that comes up in the row?
Mooster: That would be nice, but oh no!
Weeds come up all over the garden. You can’t really keep them out. Some people
use plastic to keep out weeds, others use mulch. Some of those things help, but
you can’t keep out all the weeds. When Adam sinned in the garden, God told Adam
part of the curse was going to be having to fight weeds and thistles when he
tried to grow food.
Moe: What? We are still getting weeds
from Adam’s sin?
Mooster: You can bet your best rake that’s
right!
Moe: Wow. So you have to pull weeds
then, huh?
Mooster: Yep, and water it every few days
and make sure the bugs aren’t eating them.
Moe: What happens if you see bugs?
Mooster: Well, I make up some soap
concoctions that bugs don’t like, but it won’t make animals and children sick.
Moe: Oh – that’s a good idea.
Mooster: You know, gardening is a lot like
growing as a Christian. Once you get saved, God expects you to grow, grow,
grow!
Moe: Oh – you mean grow spiritually?
Mooster: That’s right.
Moe: Oh that’s good….for a moment I was
afraid you meant physically and I don’t want to be any bigger. I’m too adorable
just the way I am. One doesn’t want to mess with perfection, you know.
Mooster: Riiiiiigght. ANY way. God wants us
to grow closer and closer to Him and to be more and more like His Son, Jesus
Christ.
Moe: Oh oh oh – I know a way we can
grow! By reading our Bibles!
Mooster: That’s right, Moe! Can you think
of another one?
Moe: Um…..Oh – yeah! We can replace the
bad things in our lives with good things! Like sometimes when people get saved,
they used to listen to bad music, and once they get saved, they start listening
to good music!
Mooster: Excellent!
Moe: And – going to church helps us
grow, too. It’s where we learn a lot about the Bible and what God has told us
in His Word.
Mooster: That’s right! Sunday School and all
the church services – they are important in helping Christians grow. Hey Mr.
Songleader!
Songleader: Yes?
Mooster: Can you help us sing about
growing?
Songleader: Sure – SONG
Read your Bible
Read your Bible
pray every
day,
pray every
day,
pray every
day.
Read your
Bible
pray every
day
and you’ll
grow, grow, grow.
And you’ll
grow, grow, grow,
and you’ll
grow, grow, grow.
Read your
Bible
pray every
day
and you’ll
grow, grow, grow.
Mooster: Thanks Mr. Songleader! That’s a great song for
today’s lesson.
Moe: Is there a Bible verse too,
Mooster?
Mooster: There is, Moe. Did you know that
you can’t grow certain things at certain times of the year?
Moe: Oh, yeah – like if it gets cold or
something. Because if it frosts or snows, it will kill the plants.
Mooster: Yep. There are times and seasons.
And did you know that God placed the stars in the heavens to help people know
about the seasons? Farmers know just when to plant things and when not to plant
things. Scripture even talks about times and seasons. The Bible verse today is
from Ecclesiastes 3, verse 2. “A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to
plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.”
Moe: Why does it talk about dying in the
same verse as planting?
Mooster: Because in order for a seed to
sprout and grown a new plant, it has to die. People have to bury the seed in
the dirt. As the old seed shell lays there, it looks dead. But something
miraculous is happening. Pretty soon, a green sprout will pop out of the seed
and a little plant will make its way to the surface. A new life will begin!
Moe: Hey – that’s kind of like when
Jesus was buried in the tomb. It looked like He was dead, but really He was
just waiting and He arose from the grave alive!
Mooster: True – and that’s the picture that
baptism shows, too. When someone is baptized after they have been saved, they
are showing that they believe in the death and burial of Christ, by being
placed under the water.
Moe: And then they show the
resurrection of Christ by coming up out of the water!
Mooster: That’s right. And then the pastor
usually says something about being raised to walk in newness of life. That’s
the new life that you get when you are saved.
Moe: And just like the little seed, we
are to sprout and grow and bring forth fruit for Jesus.
Mooster: That’s exactly right, Moe. Boys and
girls, it’s important that we try and walk in a way that we grow closer and
closer to Christ. Make sure you tell other people about Jesus – you want to be
a good farmer for Christ, and bring in lots of good fruit!
Moe: Thanks for the story! Bye everyone!
Mooster: Bye!
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Questions
to go along with the story:
1. How did
Moe first think Mooster was going to use the catalogs? For the birdcage
2. What was
his second guess? Planting the catalogs to get plants
3. Is
pepperoni a mea or a vegetable? Meat
4. Can you
grow good vegetables just by tossing the seeds around the garden? No
5. What was
the first thing Mooster did? Use the tractor to plow up the dirt
6. Mooster
planted his seeds in nice neat what? Rows
7. Why did
he label the rows? To know what was planted
8. What was
going to grow up with the plants? Weeds
9. Why do
we have weeds? From when Adam sinned in the garden
10. How is
gardening like a Christian? God wants us to grow, just like the plants
11. Name
one way you can grow? Read your Bible, songs, going to church, praying
12. What
did God give farmers to know the seasons? Stars
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