“FLY!” came the sudden command. Suddenly, catastrophe struck. From the tall grass, the human hunters stood up and began to shoot their guns. The duck colony was caught totally by surprise. An alert duckling spotted the hunters just before they struck and sounded the alarm. Instinct set in and the colony lifted into the air flying every direction so as not be good targets and flew in a panic away from the lake. The rifles rang their shots out in a riot of explosions that sounded like the world was ending. But no duck was killed. The hunters were mad and took their equipment and moved on to another site to shoot ducks.
Chucky excused himself from his guests who understood his concern. Quickly he waddled to the standard retreat spot where his fellow ducks would gather after such an attack. He got there before most of the frightened colony but when he did, he found something very upsetting. Gracie was hurt badly. Chucky went to her and comforted her. “Why me Chucky?” She cried and he plucked his own feathers to pad the places where she was hurt for warmth. Soon the whole colony arrived and they were all worried and upset but they would not come near Gracie.
“Come help me.” Chucky pleaded with them. “She is hurt. She needs all of our help.”
“Oh no.” the other ducks said proudly. “We could never soil ourselves with her now. What if some of the dirt and blood got on our feathers? No, no, Chucky. Just leave her. We cannot afford to be soiled like that.” And slowly the colony slipped away. But Chucky didn’t care about being dirty or getting her blood on him. He just knew he had to save his dear friend.
“I have to get her to my house where I can help her heal.” She quacked to himself.
“We will help.” Came the squeaky voice from the edge of the clearing. There stood his many friends that the other ducks would not associate with. The frogs, the turtles, the field mice, the rodents, the snakes all showed up. Chucky was always there for them, now they were here for him. They gathered around Gracie and helped transport her to Chucky’s home where she began to heal.
“Chucky, I feel so ashamed I was bad to your friends.” Gracie said a few days later as she was getting better. “Why do you think they helped you save me?” She wondered.
“Because that is what Jesus would do.” Chucky responded bringing her some more soup. “We are made in God’s image and God sent his son to save us and nothing would stop him from doing that. So the least we can do is reach out to friend to show her the same love.” he said. Gracie was so grateful and wanted to learn more about Jesus and Chucky’s good friends. Never again did she worry about being beautiful or proud as she was before the pageant. Now she just wanted to be more like Jesus, just like you and I want to be.
Value: Kindness
