God & Binoculars

“Ooh! That one looks like a rabbit. See his ears?”

“Hey, yeah. But there’s an ice cream cone over there.”

Jessie and Justin laughed as they stared up at the puffy clouds in the sky. It was a good day for cloud watching. The sunshine was warm, but the breeze made the clouds quickly change into different shapes.

“Seeing that cloud shaped like an ice cream cone made me hungry. Let’s go get a snack,” said Justin.

“Sounds good to me!” exclaimed Jessie. “I’ll ask my mom what we can have to eat.”

The two friends hurried inside Jessie’s house. Justin and Jessie lived next door to each other. Their families had been friends since Justin and Jessie were born—just two weeks apart. They even got to call each other’s parents “aunt” and “uncle” because their families knew each other so well.

Justin was Jessie’s best friend, and Jessie was Justin’s. They liked to play games, ride bikes, or just act goofy. It was always fun, and today was no different.

“I love bananas!” said Justin, acting like a monkey with a mouthful of banana.

“Me, too. Hey, what’s that thing?” Jessie asked.

“That’s a pair of binoculars,” Jessie’s mom replied as she walked into the kitchen. “You look through them, and they make things that are far away look closer so you can see them better. Your dad uses binoculars for hunting, so he can search for animals.”

“Wow! Can we use them to look at the clouds, Auntie Bev?” asked Justin.

“I suppose so, but be very careful with them and bring them back inside.” Jessie’s mom handed the binoculars to Jessie.

Jessie looked through them. “Wahh! Justin, you’re head looks so big! It’s like you’re standing right here in front of me.”

“Let me try!” They both practiced with the binoculars then went outside to search for the best clouds.

“Wow! These binoculars make the clouds look so close. Hey! I wonder if we could see God up there.”

“Maybe we can. Here, let me look.” Jessie put the binoculars up to her eyes and searched all around the sky. “I don’t see God up there, just clouds and some birds.”

“Hi there, kids. What are you up to?”

“Daddy!” shouted Jessie as she ran for a hug. “We’re looking for God through your bin . . . binloc . . . binloclors.”

Jessie’s dad laughed. “You mean bin-oc-u-lars?”

“Yeah, that,” giggled Jessie.

“We were looking for God up in the sky, but we can’t find Him,” explained Justin.

“Well, you know why you can’t find God through binoculars?” Jessie’s dad sat down on the grass beside them. “It’s because God is unsearchable. That means God is so great that we could never know all He knows or understand everything about Him.”

“But we can see other things with the binoculars, like birds and clouds,” said Jessie.

“And,” Justin pointed out, “you could see animals that are hiding, too.”

“Oh, yes. We can see all kinds of beautiful things God created. But God is much, much greater than anything He’s made.”

“Wow! God must be really big then,” said Jessie. “He’s greater than anything!”

“That’s right! God is so great, He’s unsearchable.”

Just then they all heard a voice saying, “God is unsearchable, but I didn’t have to search very far to find you, Justin.” Justin’s mom laughed as she opened up the gate. “Time for dinner. Come on home.”

“OK, Mom! I’m coming. See you later, Jessie. And thanks for letting us use your binoculars, Uncle Dave.”

Justin ran through the gate into his own yard as Jessie and her dad waved good-bye and headed inside their house to put the binoculars away.