05/16/2026
Earlier this month when she passed me in the halls, a four-year-old girl said, “Pastor Taylor, can the next story be about us?”
Yes, yes. Of course, the answer is yes.
So our final Chapel Time is a story from Revelation, a story which is especially about you.
Here is the background, a preschool theology: in last month’s Parable of the Good Shepherd, many of the children resisted the presence of the dangerous place. They asked, why does this world need a dangerous place at all? Can’t the sheep just have safety? They asked this because young children have incredibly well-honed senses of right and wrong.
But the dangerous place stayed in the story, because in our world, there are dangerous places. In our world, not all sheep are safe.
Some children imagined bad guys in that story - they weren’t a part of the story, actually, but children are very good at imagining. They imagined that the sheep's gate needed to be very tall in order to keep the bad guys out. The problem of pain was real to them - in their preschool way.
In comes this story… this story which is especially about you.
When the Good Shepherd looked at the world with the dangerous place, he thought… this is not good enough. This is not good enough for my sheep. And you, beloveds, are my sheep. I want a world where you will always be safe, and never be afraid.
So he started to build a new world. He is building it now, for you.
In the middle of the world he put a stream of living water, so no one will ever be thirsty again. At the banks of the river the Good Shepherd planted a seed, and it began to grow.
Soon there was a tree, as big as the one that grew from the mustard seed, big enough for all of the birds of the air to make their nest. The leaves of this tree are good for medicine, enough to heal the nations. No one will ever get hurt in this new world, and all the hurting of our world will go away.
On the tree grows all the fruit there ever was - fruit free to eat, fruit without price - so everyone will always have enough to eat, and no one will ever be hungry.
And when the world was ready, the Good Shepherd said: come.
Who did the Good Shepherd love? “All of the sheep,” they said. Was there anyone the Good Shepherd didn’t love? “No. Never.” So who did the Good Shepherd invite into the new world?
“Everyone.” Everyone, everyone. Everyone in rooms like this, and everyone outside of them.
The Good Shepherd looked at all the people and said: come.
You don’t have to be good. You don’t have to say the right words. You don’t have to be anything other than who you are. I love you, and I made you, and I want you to be safe, and happy, and loved. You are enough, exactly as you are. So come.
When it was time to put themselves in the story, little hands moved little people. Many were swimming (some even with river sharks). Many were dancing. Many were picking fruit - peaches and strawberries and cloudberries and mangoes. And many were climbing the tree as tall as they could, knowing that in this world, they were always, completely safe.
This story is true. This story hasn’t happened yet. (This is a great mystery.)
We marveled at the world with no pain and no fear. We laughed as the people played in the water. We imagined what it would be like to see the tree with every kind of fruit, up close and personal.
“Wow,” breathed one little one, newly three years old. “Beautiful.”
Beautiful indeed.
