(father and daughter come strolling up center aisle, hand-in-hand, and daughter is upset, they are mid-conversation and the father is attempting to explain things “the way they are”)
Note: it's best if two adults perform this drama, employing all the mannerisms of children, so the actor playing the father, very wise, will then switch and play the son, a child, and the actor playing the daughter, very childishly, will then transform into the mother, very wise.
DAUGHTER:
(stamping foot, very upset) If Bucky can do it, I can do it! If Bucky can do it, I can do it! If Bucky can do it, I can do it!
FATHER:
SWEETHEART! Hold on a second! How about if I tell you a little story!
DAUGHTER:
(stops, looks at father, then suddenly jumps up and down) Yeah! Yeah! Tell me a story! Tell me a story, Papa! (she smacks him with a rolled up piece of paper, over and over)
FATHER:
(moves over to a place to sit down and they sit on the floor) Okay, picture a big beautiful forest, tons and tons of trees, and the sky is all boiling with black clouds, and birds are flying everywhere, looking for a place to hide out from the rain. Well there is this one woodpecker who decides this is the best time to peck some of the very best trees — all the competition is scrambling for cover…
DAUGHTER:
(interrupting) What’s his name! What’s the woodpecker’s name?!
FATHER:
Huh? Oh, what would you like his name to be?
DAUGHTER:
(thinking) Ummmmmmmmmmmm — how about . . . BUZZBEE! Because he’s always buzzing around, looking for trees to peck!
FATHER:
Okay, so Buzzbee flies to the hugest, greatest, tallest and oldest tree! He’d always wanted to do some pecking on this humungous tree, but there were always older, bigger, smarter birds there before him. But TODAY, ahhhh, today he had a clear shot!
DAUGHTER:
(clapping hands) Get it, Buzzbee! GET IT!
FATHER:
(motions for quiet, finger at lips) Shhhhh (smiling) . . . okay, so he lands high up on the tree, higher than he’d ever been before, and he’s so proud! Think of it! BUZZBEE! One of the smallest woodpeckers in the forest, pecking the greatest, tallest, oldest tree…!
DAUGHTER:
Coooooool!
FATHER:
And Buzzbee pulls back his beak (takes piece of paper from daughter, rolls it into a pointed beak, puts it to face, and mimes PECKING a tree) and he PECKS! Wow! It was great!
DAUGHTER:
YES! (lifting hands over head in victory) Buzzbee is the greatest! It’s Buzzbee’s tree!
FATHER:
THAT’s EXACTLY what Buzzbee was thinking! And he reared back to peck again, and as his beak came forward, SOMETHING HAPPENED!
DAUGHTER:
(mesmerized, excited) WHAT! What happened?!
FATHER:
Oh, (looking at watch, shaking head wearily) I’ve got a lot to do, why don’t we finish this story tomorrow!
DAUGHTER:
(grabbing beak from father and smacking him over the head) NOOOOOO! Tell me the rest! What happened! What happened! What happened!
FATHER:
(laughing, holding up hands for peace) Okay! Okay! (takes beak from daughter, holds to face, and pecks tree) As his beak came down and hit the tree a second time, a huge bolt of lightning came sizzling down out of the sky, and it smacked into the tallest thing in the forest, right into the top of the tree that poor Buzzbee was doing his woodpecking, and the top of that old, old tree suddenly exploded into a million, billion toothpicks — and right then the rain started falling like crazy, as if buckets were pouring out of the sky!
DAUGHTER:
(incredibly concerned) What happened to Buzzbee! What happened to poor Buzzbee!?
FATHER:
Well, that’s the incredible thing. As soon as the tree exploded and the lightning sizzled down inside the trunk, and all the rain started flooding into the forest — Buzzbee flew away from the tree like crazy, his little woodpecker heart beating like CRAZY (taps chest hard and fast like a thumping rabbit’s foot) and he flew right to where all the other woodpeckers had gone to find shelter, and he was so excited, he flapped his wings and pecked everybody, and everyone gathered about him to see what was up, what had happened, and do you know what he told them?
DAUGHTER:
What? What! WHAT!
FATHER:
He said: “Wow, in the future I’m going to have to be more careful! You should have seen it! (tapping his beak) This thing is really DANGEROUS! I nearly blew up the whole forest with just a couple of pecks!”
DAUGHTER:
(laughing with father) I loved the story, Papa! That was a great story. Put poor, poor Buzzbee! Buzzbee’s really silly! (thinking) He didn’t really blow up that old tree into a million trees. The lightning did…
FATHER:
Yeah, but to poor Buzzbee, to him, it seemed like HE DID IT. That’s kind of the way it works with God and us. He gives us these incredible gifts, and we do these incredible things, and to us, sometimes it seems like it’s US — Like we’re doing it. But it’s really God.
DAUGHTER:
But if Buck can be a pastor, I can be a pastor! I’m smarter than him, and I can beat him running AND at kickball, plus his head is really, really REALLY HUUUUUUUUGE! How can someone with a head that big preach a sermon!?
FATHER:
Well, that’s something you need to leave up to God. Let Him decide. If you listen to Him, and follow Him — He’ll give you incredible gifts — the Holy Spirit will fill you up, and you’ll be able to serve God with power — and all of us are chosen to serve God in different ways…
DAUGHTER:
How about you, Papa? How did God give to you to serve Him…?
FATHER:
(seriously pondering the question) Well . . . you know . . . I think…
(freezes -- they pause frozen for many seconds, then they transform)
DAUGHTER 2 MOTHER:
(rises, becomes Mother, walks around her father, looking at him with love and nostalgia, a little sadness) My Papa. I still think about that woodpecker story. It’s kept me on track several times through my life. When I think I’M doing it all on my own. Or the times I’ve been called to serve God, and I was tempted to think of myself as talented, or to think of myself as special.
But Papa, what were your spiritual gifts? (walks behind him and puts her hands on his shoulders) You were never a pastor, you never healed anyone, or spoke in a strange language, or traveled all over the world spreading the Gospel . . . but you DID tell stories, a lot of them, and I always learned something from them. And I still remember them, I still remember the inflections you put into your stories, the pauses, the love...
You made a real impression on me, Papa. I’ll always remember you. You taught me about faith, and hope, and especially . . . LOVE. And the greatest of these is love…
FATHER 2 SON:
(unfreezes, becomes little boy, excited) Mama! Mama! Tell me that story, Mama! Tell me about Buzzbee the Woodpecker, Mama! Tell me about the Woodpecker and the big storm, Mama!
MOTHER:
(ruffles his hair, hugs him) Okay, Sweety! I can’t tell it the way Grandpa used to tell it, but Buzzbee the Woodpecker was flying through the woods to find the tallest tree…
SON:
(mesmerized) The storm! The storm is coming!
MOTHER:
That’s right! He wanted to have his chance to do some woodpecking on the tallest tree…
SON:
(hopping up and down) The bigggggest biggggggest tree!
MOTHER:
Yes! The bigggggest tree in the forest! Buzzbee wanted to serve God, just like all the other birds in the forest. And when he pecked the tree a big lightning bolt came down and broke the biggest tree…
SON:
BOOM! BLATZ! CRUMB-BUM BOOOOOOOM! It blew up into a MILLION-BILLION-ZILLION toothpicks!
MOTHER:
That’s right. And poor Buzzbee, he thought it was him…
SON:
But really it was God.
MOTHER:
That’s right. Really it was God…
(freezes)
SON 2 FATHER:
(stands up, becomes Father) You know, Mom never became a pastor like her friend Buck. God didn’t call her that way. But God DID call her, in many ways. And He empowered her to serve — she sang in the choir, she was the wedding coordinator for the church for years, she taught Sabbath School, and she told me stories, like my Grandpa told her (circles her, places hands on her back) — she served God every time He called her. And she taught me about Faith. And Hope. And especially . . . Love. And I don’t think she ever got confused about the lightning, like poor Buzzbee the Woodpecker…
Now I have my own kids. How do I tell them, that God calls us all differently — that He calls us to do different jobs, to serve Him, and to serve each other?
MOTHER 2 DAUGHTER:
(unfreezes, becomes daughter) Papa! (clapping hands) Tell me that old story about Buzzbee the Woodpecker!
FATHER:
(smiling, placing arm about her shoulders, leading her down the aisle) THAT old story? You know, your Great Grandpa used to tell that story to your Grandma…
DAUGHTER:
(exiting) Tell about how he was flying through the forest, during the storm, and how all the other birds were hiding from the rain and the lightning, but Buzzee wanted to…
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Completely free Christian scripts, sketches, mimes.
Always a parable. Storytelling making the difference.
Soldier On. You were created on purpose.
You were created with a purpose, a mission.
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Art et Amour Toujours
