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On the first day of the first week in September, Anderson ate the first apple from his family’s apple tree. But after the first bite, Anderson noticed that something was wrong. With the tip of his tongue, Anderson pushed at the back of his top left front tooth.

It moved.

Anderson ran to his room, and looked in the mirror above his dresser. He pushed the tooth again, and could see it barely wiggle.

Arturo, the stuffed pterodactyl, peered over Anderson ’s shoulder. “Oh dear!” he cried. “The boy’s tooth is loose!”

“No problem, man,” shouted Hans, the toy foreman who drove the toy bulldozer. “I’ll get my crew up there with some concrete. We’ll have it solid again in no time.”

“No,” said Anderson , quickly. “It’s a baby tooth. It’s supposed to come out.”

“Oh, dear!” Arturo shuddered, “The boy’s tooth has got to come out!”

“No problem, man,” shouted Hans. “I’ll get my crew up there with some shovels. We’ll have it out in no time.”

Arturo wrapped his wings around his face. “Oh, dear! Oh, dear!” he cried.

“Dynamite!” shouted Hans. “We’ll use dynamite! Quick and easy.”

And that’s when someone tapped on Anderson ’s window. Anderson opened it, and there was Granny, the Apple Tree.

“I couldn’t help overhearing you boys,” she chuckled. “And I have only one thing to say: As surely as babies grow and are born,

As surely as seedlings sprout,

All that God plans comes to pass in its time,

And Anderson ’s tooth will fall out!”

Then, shutting the window with one of her branches, she whispered, “All you have to do is wait.”

“That sounds good to me,” said Anderson . And he went downstairs for supper.

On the second day of the second week of September, Anderson was just finishing his second plate of spaghetti, when his wiggly tooth hit a meatball. Anderson ran into his room and looked in the mirror. His wiggly tooth was now wobbly.

“Oh, dear!” cried Arturo. “The boy’s tooth is moving again.”

“It won’t be long,” whispered Pig the Bank.

“Long ‘til what?” asked Anderson .

“Until we’re all rich!” grinned Pig.

“Money?” shrieked Arturo, falling to the floor. “Is that all you can think about at a time like this? Money? The boy’s tooth is falling out!”

“Yes,” said Pig, rubbing his trotters together. “And when it has fallen out, the tooth fairies will come and give us GOLD for it!”

“A quarter,” said Anderson . “My mom said a quarter.”

“No problem, man,” shouted Hans. “I’ll get my crew up there with a tractor and some good strong rope. We’ll have it out in no time.”

“Let’s do it now!” Pig squealed with excitement. “We can be rich by morning.”

Anderson clasped his hands over his mouth. And a brown branch with gold-edged leaves brushed against his window.

“I believe you boys have forgotten what I said,” Granny the Apple Tree gently scolded. “So let me remind you:

As surely as leaves drop to earth in the fall,

As surely as geese fly south,

All that God plans comes to pass in its time,

And Anderson ’s tooth will fall out!

“So be patient,” she concluded. “And leave the boy alone!”

On the third day of the third week of September, Anderson was finishing his third bowl of pudding. He was trying to be careful. But wobble met wobble, and whack— Anderson ’s tooth was downright wonky.

Anderson ran to his room, and looked in the mirror. He could now push his tooth so far forward that it stuck straight out.

“Oh, dear!” howled a hovering Arturo. “The boy’s tooth will never be the same again. I can’t bear to see it move like that.”

“Nonsense!” called Dr. Webb the spider from her home high in the corner, where the walls met the ceiling. “There is nothing to be afraid of. This is very interesting.” And she swung down onto Anderson ’s face to have a closer look.

“Don’t hurt the boy!” begged Arturo.

“Doctors cost money,” grunted Pig the Bank.

Anderson said nothing.

Dr. Webb pushed the tooth backward. She pulled it forward. Then she pushed it back again to where it should have been.

“Just like a gate,” she scribbled in her notebook. Then she pulled out her magnifying glass and carefully inspected the tooth.

“It should come out any day now,” she concluded.

“Any day now. Hmmm.” Pig was punching numbers into his calculator.

“I’ll have it out sooner than that!” Hans was loading a jackhammer into the back of a toy truck.

“Enough! Enough!” Arturo was rolling around on the floor.

“I could schedule you for surgery in the next ten minutes or so,” Dr. Webb said checking her instruments.

And then the window blew open and a bunch of brown leaves blew in.

“I’ll say this just once more,” called Granny the Apple Tree.

As surely as caterpillars burst their cocoons
And butterflies flutter about,
All that God plans comes to pass in its time,
And Anderson ’s tooth will fall out!

“It’s just about ready,” she said. “Why not wait?”

On the very next day,
as Arturo nervously nibbled on his claws,
as Hans demolished a building-block bridge,
as Pig tried to pull the cork out of his nose,
as the Doctor operated on a careless fly,
Anderson’s tooth finally fell out.

He was just sitting on his bed, reading. He closed his mouth, and when he opened it again, the tooth was gone.

“Gone!” wailed Arturo. “The boy’s tooth is gone!”

“Gone?” Pig complained. “It had better not be gone. The tooth fairies are very particular. You have to produce a tooth to get the loot.”

“Gone,” noted the Doctor in her records.

“Gone,” sighed Hans, as he put away his wrecking ball.

“Gone,” said Granny, as her bare branches brushed against the window. “Gone, like my beautiful leaves. But not for long. Listen:

As surely as leaves start from stems in the spring,

And eggs shake and quiver and crack,

All that God plans comes to pass in its time,

And Anderson ’s tooth will come back!”

Anderson looked at his friends and smiled a missing-tooth smile. Then he picked up his tooth from where it had fallen, and took it to show his mom.

In this story Anderson ’s toys come to life. They are impatient for his tooth to fall out. But the wise Apple Tree reminds them that God has a plan for Anderson . She explains that Anderson ’s tooth will fall out according to this plan.

Here’s something wonderful to think about: God has a special plan for you! Even though you can’t see him, God is always at work in your life.

One time, Jesus told a story about God’s plan to make his kingdom grow. This is the story:

Another Story about Seeds
(Mk 4:26 -29)

“God’s kingdom is like what happens when a farmer scatters seed in a field. The farmer sleeps at night and is up and around during the day. Yet the seeds keep sprouting and growing, and he doesn’t understand how. It is the ground that makes the seeds sprout and grow into plants that produce grain. Then when harvest season comes and the grain is ripe, the farmer cuts it with a sickle.”

The seeds the farmer plants in this story are like the teachings of Jesus. In God’s plan Jesus began the kingdom of God here on earth. In God’s plan Jesus’ teachings keep on spreading and God’s kingdom keeps on quietly growing.

What can you do today to help the kingdom of God grow here on earth?

Jesus, I’m happy to belong to your kingdom, the kingdom of God . I know that just like the seeds in your story, this kingdom is growing bigger and stronger day by day. I want to help it grow by all that I think, say and do.

Parables To Learn By
Based on Stories Told By Jesus

Written by Bob Hartman
Illustrated by Terry Julien

Help your children discover "the secret about God's kingdom" with these seventeen contemporary stories based on the parable themes of Jesus.

Entertaining in approach, each story is complemented by life application questions, the corresponding Gospel parable text, and a concluding prayer. Parables To Learn By provides an enjoyable introduction to Gospel values for children, to whom, as Jesus reminds us, "the kingdom of heaven belongs."

Paperback / 152 pages / Dimensions: 8 1/4" x 10 3/4" / ISBN: 0819859338
Retail Price: $14.95

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