My Christian Diary

I want you all to enjoy these amazing children's stories. I will be posting a different story everyday for a week. The first story captured me because of this little girls heart. I pray we will all have a heart to share the GOSPEL. GOD bless you all!

If ever a little girl wanted to do something, that little girl was Catarina. Since she only wanted to go to Sunday school, you may well be surprised that she was not allowed to go, especially as she was perfectly healthy, the day was bright and sunny, and Sunday school met almost in her own back yard.

Catarina watched from the kitchen window as the children began to gather under the big palm tree next door. She wished she could be with them as they sat in a half circle around the tree and watched the teacher pin a Bible-story picture to the tree trunk. If only she could sit with the children and listen to the story!

"Oh, Madre," she said to her mother, "please, please, can I go to the Sunday school? See? I have been two times already, and it has not hurt me. Please, may I go?"

"No!" said Catarina's mother. "Something in my bones tell me that Sunday school will be bad for our family. Run along, now! You are in the way when there is cooking"

A tear ran down Catarina's cheek as she walked out onto the back porch. Another tear followed as she brushed past her father, who was sunning his toes on the steps.

"Now, then," he said, as he saw Catarina's troubled face, "What is the matter?"

"I want to go to Sunday school," she said, sadly. "I want to hear the Bible stories."

"Go, then" said her father. "You may go ten times, until you have heard a story for each finger on your two hands. Only listen carefully, so you will remember the stories well. Hurry, now, for they are beginning."

Catarina ran as fast as her feet would take her to the little circle of children under the palm tree. She listened attentively, and she remembered what she heard.

The next Sunday, Catarina returned to the Sunday school, and the next, and the next. She went until she had learned a story for each of her nine fingers, and now the smallest finger on her left hand was eagerly waiting for the last story. As soon as Sunday came, Catarina would have a story for that finger. too.

But before that last Sunday came, something terrible happened. Catarina's family moved away to another village, exactly the same as the first one, only---there was no Sunday school!" Catarina asked her new little neighbors about it, but they only said, "What is Sunday school?"

"Oh," said Catarina, "a Sunday school is when you have a big palm tree, and the children sit in a circle around it, and the teacher puts a Bible picture on the tree and tells a story about JESUS. I myself know nine of those stories--one for each of these nine fingers. Now only my last little finger is waiting to hear a story."

"Catarina," said the boys and girls, "let us have a Sunday school. You can be the teacher, for you know the stories. Tell us the stories about JESUS."

Catarina thought that was a good idea. She had the children sit in a circle around a big palm tree, and then she pinned a sheet of white paper to the tree.

"Now," she said, "you must imagine that there are hills in the picture, and on the hills are shepherds with their sheep." And you certainly did have to imagine, for there was really not a single mark on that piece of paper.

"It is night," Catarina continued, "and it is dark---very, very dark. when all of a sudden, there is a great light. And who do you suppose made the light? It was angles, come to tell the shepherds that JESUS was born."

"But who is JESUS?" asked on little boy, Catarina told them, and that was the first story.

"Oh, Catarina," the children said, "we like finger stories. Tell us some more!"

So Catarina told her new friends story after story about JESUS. She told how HE was born in a manger, and how HE healed sick people and fed five thousand people with one little boy's lunch. She told about HIS death on the cross for our sins, and about HIS resurrection from the dead.

All the stories that she knew, she told over and over again, until many of the children knew them by heart. The children enjoyed the stories so much that they named Catarina's fingers after them. There was the Shepherd Finger, and the Manger Finger, the Temple Finger, the Disciple Finger, the Sick Finger, the Lunch Finger, the Preaching Finger, the Cross Finger, and the Resurrection Finger--nine names for nine fingers. But always, the last little finger remained nameless.

"Oh, I wish I knew a story for the last finger!" Catarina would say. But she did not, so she started over again with the first finger.

One day, a missionary came to Catarina's new village. She gathered the women and children together and began to tell a Bible story. "Oh, we know how that story ends," the children said. "That is Catarina's third finger story."

The missionary did not know about Catarina or her fingers, so she started to tell another story. "That is Catarina's sixth finger story," one little boy called out.

"Who is Catarina?" the missionary asked.

"And what is all this about her fingers?"

With much persuasion, Catarina came shyly forward. "I am Catarina," she said, " and I know a Bible story for each of these nine fingers. But alas, my tenth finger always remains empty. Can you tell me a story for this little finger?"

When the missionary had learned more about Catarina, she said that she thought Catarina's tenth finger was a story in itself.

"After JESUS arose from the dead," she said, "just before HE went up to HEAVEN, HE told the people, 'Go ye into all the world and preach the GOSPEL.' That means that JESUS wants us to tell people about HIM. I think that you, Catarina, have done as much as any little girl could to obey that command, for the very day you moved to this new village you began to tell the children about HIM."

And from that day forward, the children of the village called Catarina's last little finger the "GO Ye Finger."

~Author Unknown~