Bible Stories for the Young
Green triangles are narrated and fully illustrated and will have simple animation added along the way. Yellow triangles have narration, but the illustrations aren't done yet. Videos with red triangles are planned. New and updated videos will be added very often.
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One day Elisha traveled to a land called Shunem. There was a wealthy lady who lived there, and when she met Elisha she insisted, “O dear man, you must come to my house and let me feed you.” So whenever Elisha was traveling, he would stop by her and her husband’s house to get something to eat.
The lady asked her husband, “I know that this man is a holy man of God. Can we set up a little guest room upstairs for him with a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp? That way he can have a nice comfy place to stay whenever he’s in town.” Her husband agreed, and they made a nice little guest room for Elisha.
One of the times that Elisha came to visit, he had an idea. He called to his servant, “Hey! Bring the Shunammite woman to me.”
So the woman came right away, and Elisha asked her, “What can I do for you? You’ve been so kind to me, I want to do something for you in return.”
But she patted his knee and said, “O dear man, I have all I need. I’m fine.”
Elisha still wanted to do something nice for her, though. He asked his servant, “What nice thing can I do for her?”
The servant replied. “She doesn’t have a son, and her husband is very old.” So Elisha called the woman back to him and said, “Dear woman, by this time next year you will be cuddling in your arms a little baby boy.”
Gasp! She didn’t dare believe it could come true! “No, my father, don’t trick me!” But it wasn’t a trick, was it? The next year, she had a little baby boy!
The boy grew older, and one day he went out in the morning to visit his father and the men working out in the fields. All of a sudden he started crying, “My head, my head. It hurts.” So his father sent him back home to his mother. His mother cuddled him close on her lap until lunchtime, and then, he stopped breathing.
The woman carried her dead son up to Elisha’s room and placed him on Elisha’s bed. Then she asked her husband to send her a servant and a donkey so she could go see Elisha.
But when her husband asked why, she just said, “Everything’s fine, dear.” And off she went to go find Elisha.
She told the servant, “Let’s go! Don’t stop for anything unless I say so.”
Elisha was at Mount Carmel and he looked up and saw the woman coming in the distance. He said to his servant, “Look, it’s the Shunammite woman. Run to her and ask her, “Are you okay? Are your husband and son okay?”
But when the servant asked, she just told his servant, “Everything’s fine, dear.”
But when she got to Elisha, everything was not fine. She threw herself down at his feet. The servant was going to try to pull her away from Elisha, but Elisha said, “No, please, leave her alone. She’s very upset. And God has not told me what’s going on.”
Could it be that God didn’t let Elisha See what was wrong earlier because the woman needed to learn how to be vulnerable and ask for help and not just say, “I’m fine”? Sometimes it’s easy to wrongly think, “If God loves me, then He’ll let someone know what is happening and send them to help. So, I’m fine.” Or, “My problems aren’t really that big anyway. I don’t need help. I’m fine.” When really you are not fine, and God wants you to learn to open, open, open up your life and talk to people from your heart.
The woman cried to Elisha, “Was it my idea to have a son? And didn’t I say, ‘Don’t trick me’?”
Then Elisha realized, “Oh no, her son is dead.” He told his servant, “Go! Take my staff. Run as fast, fast, fast as you can and put my staff on top of the boy’s body. Don’t stop! Don’t stop!” The servant took off fast, fast, fast.
Then the woman said to Elisha, “I won’t leave you!” So Elisha and the woman started back to her house. Before they got there, the servant returned and reported, “I put your staff on him, but the boy didn’t wake up.”
When Elisha got to the woman’s house, there the boy was lying on Elisha’s bed. Elisha went into the bedroom and closed the door. He knelt down and prayed. Then he climbed on top of the boy, stretching his whole body over him. He put his mouth to the boy’s mouth. He put his eyes to the boy’s eyes. He put his hands on the boy’s hands. He was going to do everything he needed to do for this little boy to live again. As he stretched out over him, the boy’s cold body started to grow warmer, warmer, warmer.
Elisha got up and paced around waiting to see if anything else happened. Then he got back on the boy again. Mouth to mouth. Hand to Hand. Eye to eye.
Do you know what I think about when I hear this story? I think about all the people right now who are not “breathing” God’s Air. They are dead in sin, even if their physical body is still “alive.”
Sometimes people can get so sick without Jesus’ Life that they need more than just a few words or a little help here and there. Sometimes the only way for someone to get better is to get close, close, close to them and Care in really special ways.
Paul talks about this some later in the Bible. He talks about how trying to help people takes being so involved with them that it hurts and takes time and energy just like having a baby does. It’s not enough to just say something to them to try to “wake them up.” You have to get your whole self involved.
Mouth to mouth — Breathing new Life from God into them. Eye to eye — Helping them see with Heaven-Eyes. Hand to hand — Leading them step by step by step towards Jesus. Heart to heart — Crying their tears, bearing their burdens, spending the night in prayer for them, spending our money and time on them when they would never even know.
We have to care and care and care — mouth to mouth, eye to eye, hand to hand, until their body starts to grow warmer, warmer, warmer…
Then… Aachoo. Aachoo. Aachoo. Aachoo. Aachoo. Aachoo. Aaaaachoo!!! The boy sneezed seven times. He was alive again! Elisha called the boy’s mommy and she came and fell at Elisha’s feet. Then she scooped up the boy into her arms and cuddled him again.