Canyon Echo

"Yum! Those hamburgers smell really good!" exclaimed Isla as her mom turned the meat on the grill. "I'll call Dad and Evelyn. They said they'd stay close enough to hear us." The family was camping in a mountain canyon, and Isla's dad and sister had gone to collect some firewood while Isla and Mom got their meal ready. Isla faced the high cliffs opposite the campsite, took a deep breath, and loudly shouted, "Yoo-hoo!" "Yoo-hoo!" came back to her, clear as a bell. "Supper!" yelled Isla. "Supper!" was the immediate response. Isla looked a little puzzled, then she grinned as Dad and Evelyn walked into the campsite. "When I heard 'yoo-hoo' coming from the other side of the canyon, I thought you were answering me, Evelyn," she said with a giggle. "But I knew you weren't calling me to supper. It was my own echo." "So you got acquainted with the friendly echo that lives on the canyon wall," said Dad with a smile. "Echoes don't live on canyon walls," said Evelyn. "They're made by sound waves bouncing back to us so that we hear the sound again." She grinned. "Now, can I please have a hamburger? I'm starving." After supper, Evelyn joined Isla in talking with the canyon echo. Finally, Isla called, "Good night," and then she listened as the echo repeated the message. "Echoes are fun," she said. "Did you know that we should be echoes too?" Dad asked. "What do you mean?" asked Evelyn. "How can we be echoes?" "Well," said Dad, "when God speaks to people today, they don't actually hear a voice. His words are found in the Bible--it tells us who He is, how much He loves us, and what Jesus did to save us. But since not everyone reads the Bible, Christians need to be echoes of God's love and truth in the world. We can do that by telling people about Jesus and showing the same love to others that He showed us when He died to pay for our sins." "So we're like God's echoes," said Isla. "Amen!" Dad said loudly--and they all listened quietly as the answering "Amen" wafted back from the canyon wall. –Trudy VanderVeen