by Chelsey Souligny - age 10

"I can't believe we only have three weeks left of school!" exclaimed Angela to her friend Claire.

"What are you going to do while we are on summer vacation? I am going to go to the Mall of America."

"That sounds really fun!" said Claire, "I don't know what I am going to do. I think that I might spend part of my summer reading my Bible, it seems like I just forget about it when I have so much homework to do."

"You mean that big book with nothing but words and no pictures you once brought to school?"

"It isn't just a regular plain old book," answered Claire. "Inside there are a lot of stories that are true, amazing..."

Angela cut her off, "Oh! I just remembered my favorite TV show is almost on. I'll see you tomorrow." And with that she was gone.

Angela and Claire had been friends for almost half a year. They did a lot of things together and had many things in common. The only hard part with their relationship was the difference between their faith. As Claire rode the bus home she thought over and over again, "If only Angela knew Jesus, that would change her whole life!" It seemed like every time Claire said something about God, Angela never seemed to be interested. Claire tried thinking of some way she could get Angela to understand the true meaning of Christ. She could let her borrow her bible, but Angela probably wouldn't even read it. Then Claire thought about letting her borrow a Christian book of hers. She thought of all the books that she had. Suddenly she thought of the right one. It was the 'Chronicles of Narnia". That was just perfect!

The book is about a lion who represents Jesus, and a witch who represents the devil. Claire had all ten of the books so if Angela liked the first book, she could read all of the others as well.

The next day Claire went to school with the book in her backpack. When she got to school she gave Angela the book when they went to their locker. Angela said, "What's this?" Claire told her that it was a book that she really enjoyed and that she could borrow it if she wanted. Angela said, "thanks" and then they went to class.

The next day Angela came up to Claire and said, "Oh! That book is so good! I stayed up late last night reading it!"

"It's one of my favorite books too," answered Claire. "You know there are nine other books after that one. I have them all. If you want you can borrow those books too."

"Oh, that would be great!" answered Angela.

In three weeks, Angela had read all ten of the books. The day that she returned them, she said to Claire, "Those were the best books I have ever read! I liked how there was a big, kind Lion, and a tall witch that doesn't like the lion and wants to kill Him. And there is a boy who betrays the lion and tells the witch where the lion is. And one night she kills Him, but then the Lion comes back to life! And there are animals that can talk and dwarves. And in the last book four hundred years after the first book, the Lion comes back and has all the good animals who believe in Him come through a door, and the bad animals who don't believe, don't get to come in through the door. Then the lion takes them to this wonderful place! Those books are really neat and so good! It would be cool if that was really true and really happened!"

"It really did happen!" said Claire. "The lion represents Jesus and the witch represents the devil."

"What do you mean? That story is in the Bible?"

"Yes, it is. That is what the writer of Chronicles of Narnia was writing about -- Jesus and the devil, when Jesus dies, and when He will someday come to earth and take up all the Christians to heaven," answered Claire.

"I think I might want to read about it in your Bible. Do you mind if I borrow it?"

"Of course you can! I'll give it to you tomorrow."

"By the way," said Angela, "how are you supposed to find that story in that big book?"

"You can look for it in the Gospel of John."

"Okay, I think I can find it," Angela said.

The next day Angela wasn't at school. Claire thought that she probably was just taking a day off for a dentist appointment. But she wasn't there the next day and the day after that. A week passed and
she still hadn't come to school

Then finally after two weeks Angela finally showed up. Claire ran up to her and asked her why she had missed school. She said that she had the chicken-pox. She had to stay in bed the whole while she was sick. So she had been reading Claire's Bible. And now she was really into it.

"I was wrong to say the Bible was just plain boring. It was nothing like that when I read it. It said God likes it when you pray to Him. So I decided to pray to God to help me get better. And that is exactly what He did. I have asked Him to come into my heart too, because I believe in Jesus. Now I feel it is like a whole new beginning for me," said Angela.

"Oh! I am so happy for you! I am glad that you are better! I was praying for you," said Claire.

"You know what, Claire?"

"What?"

"I never knew of a better friend than you."