Just Because: The Story of Salvation for Children

Just Because

The STory
of
SalvaTion
f o r C h i l d r e n

Q

Steve Copland

Just Because

The Story of Salvation for Children

k

By Steve Copland

Copyright © 2007 by Steve Copland

Just Because

by Steve Copland

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN 978-1-60266-916-1

All rights reserved solely by the author. The author

guarantees all contents are original and do not

infringe upon the legal rights of any other person or

work. No part of this book may be reproduced in any

form without the permission of the author. The views

expressed in this book are not necessarily those of

the publisher.

Preface:

A note to parents, caregivers,

and Sunday school teachers

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The first draft of this book was written twenty

years ago when I was a voluntary teacher of the

government religious instruction at secular schools

in New Zealand. It was written to give un-churched

children faith in the power of Scripture, and Christian

children a deeper love and trust in biblical truths.

Many young lives have already been influenced for

God through hearing it, in Australia, New Zealand,

and even Cuba.

This book is not intended as a paraphrase of the

Bible, nor is it to be a replacement to the Scriptures.

Rather it is like a narrative exegesis. Each chapter

takes about twenty minutes to read and ends with

a biblical lesson and encouragement. Throughout

the book I have tried to make the characters of the

Bible come to life and, in a way similar to when a

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director makes a movie about the Bible, I have used

some artistic license, such as when Noah preaches a

sermon to the people of his time. Noah’s sermon is

not in the Bible; however, I have prayerfully tried to

bring out the true intentions of biblical characters in

their imaginary conversations and thoughts.

I recommend that as a general rule this book be

read by a parent, caregiver, or Sunday school teacher

to children ages seven to nine and personally read by

children ages ten to fifteen.

May those young lives who hear and read this

book be eternally deepened in their love for and faith

in Jesus Christ and the Bible.

Steve Copland

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Chapter 1

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This is a story about us. It’s about you and me and

Fred and Grandma, and, well, it would take too

long to write down all our names because this story is

about everyone. Everyone, that is, who has ever been

born and even everyone who still hasn’t been born

yet. It’s an exciting story too. It’s about why we are

here alive and why some of us are not alive and why

some of us can’t sing for nuts and why some of us

are going to heaven and why some of us don’t even

know where heaven is.

This is a true story. That means you can believe

it, and if you believe it you will find out how to get to

heaven even if you can’t sing for nuts. It starts a bit

strange, because it doesn’t have a start. You see, it’s

about the Lord, and the Lord never started. But don’t

worry, because you’ll understand soon enough even

if you’re not real brainy. This story is
about
everyone

and
for
everyone. So this is how it starts.

Once upon a time there was no such thing as time

because the Lord hadn’t made it yet. And there was

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Just Because

only one place, and it was so big that it had no end.

It just kept on going and going and going forever

and ever. Whew! That’s a long way. This place is

called paradise, or heaven, if you prefer. It’s the place

where the Lord lives and the place where people like

Grandma and Aunty Jean go too if they know the Lord,

because He’s the owner. The Lord has always been

there because the Lord has always been. He doesn’t

have birthdays like you and me. The Lord wanted to

have millions of angels and people enjoying heaven

with Him so He started His plan.

Now the Lord knows everything, even about

things that haven’t happened yet. He looked into the

future and saw lots of things that made Him very sad.

But He also saw lots of people laughing and singing

in heaven. He knew many sad things would happen

to many people for a little time when they were alive,

but He would wipe away their tears and use the bad

things to make them happy forever with Him.

Now no people were living with the Lord. He

hadn’t made any people yet, and He hadn’t even

made the earth yet. But He made heaps and heaps

of angels so they could enjoy heaven as well. The

angels really enjoyed living there.

You see, it is a very cool place. Not cool like it’s

cold. . .nah, but cool like it’s just very cool. It never,

ever rains, and it never gets dark; so you can’t go

to bed because it’s always daytime. And you never

get tired or lonely or sick, and you always feel really

great. How’s that for cool?

So as I was saying about all those angels: There

were lots of them, more than you can count, and

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one of them was called Lucifer. Now all the angels

looked different from each other because the Lord

never makes two things exactly the same. He doesn’t

need to because He never runs out of ideas. Well,

Lucifer was one great-looking dude. I mean, he was

really gorgeous, ya know; so the Lord called Him

Lucifer because Lucifer means “the Beautiful One.”

So if you thought Lucifer meant “loose fur” and all

his fur was loose and falling out, then you’d be wrong

because he didn’t even have fur!

Now everything in paradise was perfect because

no one had sinned. That means nobody had done

anything wrong as we all have. But one day Lucifer

was walking along beside the crystal sea—that’s a

big lake up in heaven somewhere—and he saw his

own reflection in a mirror.

“Wow!” he said, staring at himself. “I really

am a rather good-looking dude. In fact I am totally

amazing. I am, well—give me five,” he said and

slapped his hands on the crystal sea and got a wet

face for his trouble.

Well, Lucifer started to look around heaven and

compare himself with everyone else, and he decided

he was the best-looking creature in paradise except

for the Lord. Lots of the other angels told him he was

really beautiful as well, but they always said, “But

not as beautiful as the Lord.”

Lucifer got jealous, really jealous, and then he

started to get angry. The thing that made him even

angrier was that the Lord was much more powerful

than he was. Lucifer wanted to be the king of heaven,

so he started planning how he could take over the

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Just Because

place. Bad move, Lucifer. Lucifer hated the idea that

the Lord was king of heaven. What made him the

angriest of all was that the Lord was his king and

Lucifer didn’t want anyone telling him what to do.

Now Lucifer talked to a whole heap of his angel

buddies, and those dummies agreed with him. They

decided to try to throw the Lord out of heaven and

make Lucifer the new king. Wow! How stupid was

that, huh? Yep, Lucifer was pretty stupid to think

he could throw the Lord out of heaven. But when

someone gets into sinning they just aren’t thinking

right. Lucifer got madder and madder at the Lord

because the Lord wouldn’t leave. Lucifer started

to hate the Lord. Once he started hating, his heart

became black, and the hatred spread throughout his

whole body and mind. He became absolutely evil.

The Lord decided Lucifer and his buddies would

have to go. They weren’t enjoying being in heaven

anymore because they had dreamed up some really

bad things they wanted to get into, and there wasn’t

anything bad to do in heaven. Also, Lucifer and his

other bad angels were thinking they would like to

be in the dark. The light always reminded them of

the Lord, and now they hated the Lord because they

hated everything that was good and beautiful.

So the Lord decided to make a place especially

for them where they would be comfortable and where

they wouldn’t have to be in the light all the time.

The Lord made a tiny little seed with everything

inside it to make the whole universe. Then there was

a big noise, and a huge black bubble began to appear.

It became so big that only He could tell where the

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end of it was. Now we call this place space because it

has plenty of space in there. It is just a great big black

bubble with fuzzy edges floating inside the Lord’s

place, inside heaven. As space was growing, all the

parts of the space seed grew and stars were made,

along with planets and lots of really amazing stuff.

Now before the Lord put Lucifer and his buddies

in there He changed their names. He changed Lucifer’s

name to Satan, which means “The Father of Lies,”

because Satan had started tel ing lies before anyone

else. He changed the name of the bad angels to demons,

because they were a real bad bunch of cookies.

So the Lord put all those demons and Satan

inside space and told them they couldn’t come out,

and they didn’t try because they were really scared of

the Lord. In fact, they were glad to be away from the

Lord. When you are evil it feels real bad to be beside

the perfect Lord of heaven.

Satan and his buddies were pleased to be in the

darkness because they hated the light now, but the

Lord did tell Satan he could come to the edge of the

bubble to speak with Him sometimes. Now it was

really dark in the bubble, and after a while all the

demons and Satan became invisible because you

can’t see demons when they are inside the bubble.

Millions of demons were put into the bubble.

Demons never die as people die, so guess where

they still are? Yep, good guess. They are still in the

bubble. They are everywhere, but we can’t see them.

That’s a good thing, really. They would maybe scare

the hair right off ya toes if you have hair down that

far yet; and some of us have, especially older people.

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Just Because

So Satan and the demons were locked inside the

bubble, inside space, and this happened Just Because

they refused to have the Lord for their king and tried

to be their own kings instead. Silly, really.

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Chapter 2

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Now a few million years later—though to Satan

and his buddies it didn’t seem so long because

there was still no such thing as time—the Lord

decided to begin the next part of His plan, and that

was to make some people. He wanted to make them

so they could enjoy being with Him because God is

wonderful to live with—unless of course you’re a

demon and your heart has become black with hate.

Now Satan was up near the edge of the bubble when

he heard the Lord talking about making people, and

he called out to the Lord.

“Hey, God,” he said. “Whereabouts are these

new things going to live? I’m a king too, You know,

and these new things might want me to be their king

instead of You. After al ,” Satan continued, “these

demons You put in here with me cal me the prince

of darkness. In fact, I am the king of darkness.” From

inside the bubble came a big noise of shouting as all

the demons cal ed out, “Satan is our king! Satan is our

king!” I reckon they were just too scared not to shout.

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The Lord considered these things for a while, and

in fact He had planned this all along. He had decided

that His new creations, the people, should learn to

make choices. If the people were going to learn to be