My 10th grade students at Central Christian are learning from the parables of Jesus. One of their assignments is to write a contemporary parable to communicate a spiritual truth. Jesus' parables make use of real life "things" and often use comparison.
Why should my students have all the fun I thought; so I composed a parable as an example for them:
While enjoying dinner with friends Jesus was asked, “Lord, tell us how we might renew our joy?” Jesus replied,
“There was a house owner planning to redecorate her kitchen and dining room. She had been given a sum of money by her mother to spend as she pleased. Looking around the room she tried to imagine what she might do; however, few ideas came to her mind. She traveled to home improvement stores seeking assistance. The sales persons were glad to schedule a home visit for a fee but were booked ahead for three months. She was discouraged and few ideas of what she might do came to her mind.
Returning home she called her sister-in-law, a person well-known for her home décor consultations. She came that evening with her swatches of paint samples and sat with the house owner for several hours imagining the unending possibilities. After a sleepless night filled with images of what her rooms might like the home owner traveled to home décor specialty stores purchasing room décor items and scheduled the local village painter.
Her sister-in-law stopped by the house regularly to check on the progress of the rooms continuing to offer advice and even helped with placing the room décor items in a variety of settings. With great excitement, confidence, joy and pride the home owner completed the task. She offered to pay her sister-in-law for all her consulting and decorating time. The sister-in-law smiled with great joy affirming the home owner for her choices, “Your joy is payment enough!”
