“When’s Uncle Jeff coming round again, Mum?” Bobby asked one day after school. “Well, as a matter of fact, he’s coming round for tea tonight”, Mum said. “Oh good” said Bobby, “I wonder if he has any more stories for us!” “You’ll have to ask him when he gets here”, Mum said with a smile, “I’m sure he’ll have something to tell you anyway!” She knew that Uncle Jeff loved telling stories and he was very good at it.    After tea was over, and Uncle Jeff was sitting comfortably on the couch, Bobby went along and snuggled up beside him. “Can you tell us a story please Uncle Jeff?” he asked. “Oh, please”, Betty said and got up on the other side of him. Even Sarah pulled a chair up and pretended she was reading a book, but she was really listening to what Uncle Jeff was telling the others. “Well, it’s like this”, Uncle Jeff said, “I picked up this book that I had when I was little like you Bobby, and I thought that it was a really good story to tell you children next time I came round”. “What’s it called?” Bobby asked. “Well, it’s what is called a parable story”, Uncle Jeff said, “That means it’s an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Here goes….

  ” There was once a man whose name was Pilgrim, who was walking along a road away from his house. He had this huge bundle on his back like a back-pack and he was crying and sighing a lot as he went along. He was reading a book as he went, and it only seemed to make him sadder than ever. ‘Oh, what shall I do?’ he cried out loud.    When he went home to his wife and family, he would wipe his eyes, and blow his nose and try to be cheerful. One day his wife said to him, ‘I know something is bothering you. What are you reading in that book all the time?’ ‘Oh my dear’, he said, ‘ It tells me that dreadful things are going to come on this world, and I don’t know how to be saved from them’. But his wife had seen him like this other times, and she tried to cheer him up.           

One day, he was walking along the road again, when he met a man whose name was Evangelist. ‘This book I’m reading tells me that there are dreadful things going to happen and I’m not ready for them. I want to know how to be saved from them. This back-pack I’m carrying seems to get heavier every time I read this book’.

‘Well, you’d better get ready for this by going to that little gate right over the other side of this paddock. See that light over there? Head straight for it and you will find what to do when you get there. Don’t stop to talk to anyone, and don’t go off the path!’

‘Oh, thank-you so much’, Pilgrim said and set off at a good pace for the light. His wife and friends saw him going and they called out to him, ‘Come back, come back’, but he started to run.

Two of his friends ran after him and tried to get him to turn around. One was called Twisty, and the other one was Obstinate. ‘No, no!’ Pilgrim said, “I’m not going to listen to you. I’ve come from the City of Destruction and I want to find the City of Life where I’ll be safe”.     As he turned to carry on, Twisty said to him, “I’ve a good mind to come with you’, and he started to go with him.

‘Well, I’m going home’, said Obstinate, ‘I’m not going to be seen with you two crack-pots’, and he went back home. ‘Tell me more of what you expect to find’, Twisty said as they carried on.

‘Well it’s a wonderful place’, Pilgrim said, ‘And I know it’s true because the One Who wrote this book cannot tell a lie’. “I know who that is”, Bobby said, interrupting Uncle Jeff, “I bet it is meaning that it’s God!”

“That’s right Bobby”, said Uncle Jeff, and carried on with the story…. “Pilgrim got quite excited as he was walking along talking to Twisty. ‘It’s an awfully long way’, Twisty said after a bit, and he began to slow down. ‘Oh, but it’s worth it when you get there’, said Pilgrim, and he carried on telling him all about what to expect.

The next thing they knew was that the ground had got very wet and slippery and before they knew it, they were up to their middles in a swampy bit of ground. ‘Oh, this is the Swamp of Despair’, Pilgrim said, ‘I’ve heard of it. It’s so easy to caught in this’

‘This is dreadful’ cried Twisty, ‘I didn’t know it was going to be this hard. Yuk!’ and he spat some of the mud out of his mouth. ‘Why didn’t you watch where you were going?’ he snapped at Pilgrim, ‘If I ever get out of this, I’m going right back home!’ He heaved himself out of the slimy mud and splashed his way back to solid ground. ‘You can carry on by yourself’, he called out to Pilgrim, ‘I’m off!’ And Pilgrim didn’t see him again.”

“Why did he give up so easy?” Betty wanted  to know, “I wouldn’t have! I’d have kept going!”

“Well, you see some people don’t like trouble and they go back where they’ve come from when things get hard”, Uncle Jeff said.

“What happened next?” Bobby asked.

“We’ll leave that for next time,” Uncle Jeff said, “I don’t want you to forget the lessons in this part of the story”.