Susan’s Scripture Game

Susan’s spring vacation seemed doomed to be boring. The first day, it rained, a drizzling, gray rain. The second day, Mother had a doctor’s appointment and errands to run, so Susan had to tend her younger brother, Larry, who had the chicken pox.

“I want to go outside and play,” Larry complained.

Susan sighed. “I wish you could, too, but Mom said no friends and no playing outdoors until you’re better.”

“When will Mom be home?” Larry asked.

“After lunch.”

Larry plopped onto the couch. “That’s three hours away!”

“Well, right now I’m going to practice the piano. After that, I’m going to finish my scripture project for Primary,” Susan told him.

“But I want you to play a game with me,” Larry said grumpily.

“Why don’t you play with your trains?” Susan suggested, going over to the piano. Suddenly she turned back. “Hey, I have a great idea! I’ll make a game for you and do my scripture project at the same time!”

Larry sat up. “What are you going to do?”

“That’s the best part,” Susan said mysteriously. “It’s going to be a secret. While I get everything ready, you go to your room and listen to the scripture tapes so you’ll get into a scripture-thinking mood.”

Susan’s Primary teacher, Sister Anderson, had asked the class to use the Bible for their Merrie Miss project, so Susan flipped to the Topical Guide in the back and turned page after page. She discovered lots of possibilities for her game.

Next, she found some index cards, wrote down the scripture references that sounded fun for her clues, then hid all but one of the cards around the house.

After that, she hurried to the kitchen and fixed a surprise before going to get her brother. “Everything’s ready,” she announced, leading Larry to the family room. Handing him a card and a Bible, she said, “The clues will lead you to a surprise, but you’ll need the Bible to get you there.”

Larry looked at the first card and saw:

Clue #1

Matthew 6:6 [Matt. 6:6]. He quickly looked up the reference and read:

“‘But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.’”

He looked up. “Does this mean I need to look in the closet?”

“Why don’t you go find out?”

They ran to the hall closet, and Larry opened the door. Taped to the vacuum cleaner was another card:

Clue #2

Genesis 37:3 [Gen. 37:3]. In his Bible, Larry read:

“‘Now Israel loved Joseph … and he made him a coat of many colours.’”

He grinned. “Coats!”

Larry looked up and saw the family’s winter coats hanging in the closet. He dug his hands deep into the pockets. It was in the pocket of his very own coat that he pulled out a third card:

Clue #3

Matthew 9:16 [Matt. 9:16]. “‘No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment,’” he read from the Bible.

Puzzled, he asked Susan, “You mean cloth like in a fabric store? How can we go there?”

“We can’t, of course, but there’s a place in our house that’s a lot like one,” she hinted.

Larry let out a whoop. “Mom’s sewing corner!” He scurried to Mom’s sewing corner in the family room. Underneath a box of fabric was another card:

Clue #4

John 14:16. After finding the scripture, Larry read:

“‘And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever.’”

Turning to the Bible Dictionary, he saw that Comforter referred to either the Holy Ghost or Jesus Christ. “I don’t get it,” he said. “Where do I look next?”

“I had to stretch the language a bit on that one,” Susan admitted. “What would you think of if Comforter wasn’t capitalized?”

“Oh, I know now—it must be the thick comforter quilt on Mom and Dad’s bed!”

In their parents’ bedroom, Larry pulled back the big comforter and discovered the next card underneath a pillow:

Clue #5

Matthew 10:9 [Matt. 10:9]. “‘Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses.’”

Larry stuck his hands on his hips. “But Mom took her purse with her, and I can’t get into it without her permission, anyway.”

“There’s still mine,” Susan said with a grin, “and you may open it.”

Larry raced to his sister’s room and found her purse right on the dresser. It was empty except for a card that read:

Clue #6

Isaiah 7:15 [Isa. 7:15]. “This one says,

“‘Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.’”

“I know where to look for butter and honey!”

In the kitchen, he opened the pantry door. On a shelf sat a plate covered with thick slices of homemade bread spread with butter and honey. Underneath the plate was a card. It said:

Last Clue

Ecclesiastes 4:9 [Eccl. 4:9]. “Hey,” Larry cried, “This scripture is talking about us! Listen—

“‘Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.’”

“You’re pretty smart,” Susan told him. Then she realized that tending her brother hadn’t been so bad after all. She got two glasses of cold milk from the refrigerator, and they sat down at the table.

Larry took a big bite of his bread. Honey dribbled down his chin, and he licked it off. “Let’s do this game for family home evening next week with Mom and Dad. It was a lot of fun.”

Susan smiled at her brother. “OK, we can work together on the clues.”