MAPLE SYRUP


Jason had two brothers and three sisters. But Jason was the youngest. He was six years old. Jason’s favorite day was Sabbath. Every Friday at sundown Daddy would call the family together and read stories to them all evening. Jason would snuggle down next to Daddy and listen and look at the pictures.

Sabbath morning, after breakfast, they would all get dressed in their best clothes and go to Sabbath School and church. Jason loved the stories about Jesus, Paul, Moses and especially David, the shepherd boy. He didn’t understand much of the church service.  

Sabbath lunch was the best part of the whole day. Mommy always served waffles with maple syrup. Maple syrup was Jason’s favorite. He thought about it all week long. Sometimes he would beg Mommy to let him have just one spoonful, but she always said no.

One Sabbath morning Daddy had helped Jason get dressed for church and combed his hair nice. Jason was waiting for everyone else to get ready. He was thinking about the wonderful waffles and maple syrup that they would have for lunch that day.

Jason wandered into the kitchen and looked at the pantry. What would be so bad about a spoonful of maple syrup? Mommy had bought a gallon of it just this week. She would never know if he ate just one spoonful.

No one was around. All his brothers and sisters where upstairs getting ready for church. Mommy was fixing Jaime’s hair and Daddy was tying Tyler’s shoes. Quietly he pulled a chair from the dining room into the kitchen and pushed it over to the pantry. He climbed up and reached for the maple syrup, but he wasn’t quite tall enough. He stood on the very tips of his toes and stretched just as high as he could. His fingers just barely touched the shelf where the can was. He climbed off the chair. "What can I use to get just a little higher?" he wondered. As he looked around he saw the big family Bible sitting on the table. Now Jason knew very well that the Bible is a Holy book and that no one should ever stand on it. But it was the only thing that would make him tall enough and he wanted that maple syrup.

The Bible was heavy but Jason managed to carry it to the chair and climbed up and stood on top of it. "Just right!" he thought as he slid the can toward the edge of the shelf. He was so intent on getting that can off the shelf that he didn’t hear his sister Jaime coming down the stairs.

"Jason what in the world are you doing?" cried Jaime when she saw him standing on the Bible. Jason jumped. The can flipped over in his hands and the lid came off and before he knew what had happened Jason, the Bible, the chair and the floor were covered in thick, sticky maple syrup.

Jaime raced up the stairs and called Mommy and Daddy. Daddy was very upset when he saw the ruined Bible and Jason hung his head in shame. Maple syrup dripped off his hair and nose and got all mixed up with the tears on his face, as Daddy told him that he must never ever treat any book, but especially the Bible, in that way again. Then while his sisters cleaned up the mess in the kitchen, Mommy took Jason upstairs for a bath, and Daddy took a rag and tried very carefully to clean up the Bible. Jason never looked at the stained and wrinkled pages of the big family Bible again without remembering that disobedience does not make anyone happy in the end.

The whole family missed Sabbath school that morning and the waffles were very plain with no maple syrup that afternoon.




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