Children’s Sermon

2 Peter 1:16-21

First Hand Account

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2 Peter 1:16-21
First Hand Account

By Lois Parker Edstrom

See pictures of deer, including bucks with horns

I’m going to tell you a story that is hard to believe, but I know it is true because it happened to me. I experienced it and saw it occur with my own eyes.

We have many deer that come into our fields each day and sometimes I give them slices of apple, which they eat out of my hand. One day a huge four-point buck (show photo) came into my yard and stood quietly looking at me.

He didn’t move so I went into the house, cut an apple into slices, and when I approached him, he came to me and ate the apple slices I held in my hand. I’m quite sure he was the same little fawn who came with his mother, some years ago, to receive apple treats. It seems he remembered me.

It doesn’t seem possible that an animal so large and wild would remember the woman who fed him when he was young and years later come to her home to gently eat apples out of her hand. Many would say, “That couldn’t happen,” but it did. I experienced it.

In the Bible we learn that the disciples reported an experience they had when they were with Jesus. Here is what they said: “we were eyewitnesses of his majesty” (1:16).

“We heard this voice come out of heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain” (1:18) and the voice said, ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased'” (1:17).

We call this a first hand account – something you see and hear and experience. When you actually see something happen you believe it! You know what you saw and heard and believe to be true.

The disciples give a first hand account of seeing the majesty of Jesus and hearing God’s voice say: “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

Note: This lesson could be presented relating my story or a personal story may be substituted.

Scripture quotations from the World English Bible

Copyright 2012, Richard Niell Donovan