Hammer and Nails

Jenny always showed up early for Sunday school class.  She would find her seat and place her bible in her lap.  She would wait patiently for her friends for the Sunday school teacher to show up.  She loved learning about Jesus and his love for her.  One day her classmates came in and they all laughed and talked before the teacher got there and got everyone settled.  Once the class was settled, the teacher began to teach.  Halfway through her lesson Jenny raised her hand and asked a question.

“Teacher, how did Jesus die?” she asked.

The teacher a little taken back said, “Well Jenny, Jesus was killed by crucifixion which means he was nailed to a cross.  His hands and feet were nailed to the cross and he was left to die and after sometime he died.”

“Oh, so nails were used to kill Jesus?”

“Yes, Jenny, more like spikes than nails, but yes nails were used to nail him to a cross.  Here, let’s look the story up in the bible.”

After looking it up and reading the crucifixion story, Jenny began to understand what had happened to Jesus and it upset her very much.

A couple days later, Jenny’s Dad was in the house and wanted to hang a picture. 

“Honey, have you seen my hammer and nails?”  said Jenny’s Dad.

“No, did you look in the garage?”  said Jenny’s Mom. 

Jenny’s Dad went out in the garage and looked all around.  He looked in his cabinets and tool box and couldn’t find any nails or his hammer.  He went inside and looked around and still couldn’t find it.  The next day he went to the store and bought a new hammer and nails and hung the picture.

About a week later, Jenny’s Dad wanted to fix a chair leg that was loose.  Again he went into the garage to find his nails and hammer and again they were missing.  He asked his wife and she didn’t know where they were.  He looked around the house and still couldn’t find them.  He looked in his bedroom and in the kitchen and they were nowhere to be found.

He walked by Jenny’s room and heard her playing.  He peeked through the crack in the door and saw her playing with her dolls.  Pushing the door open he walked in.

“Hey sweetie, you didn’t happen to be playing with Daddy’s tools?  Especially my hammer.”

“Oh no Daddy, I wouldn’t play with it.  I did get rid of it though.”

Shocked and unsure of what he just heard, he replied “Got rid of it?  What do you mean Jenny.”

“I threw them away Daddy, both your hammers and all the nails.”

Now a little upset at his tools getting thrown away, he answered, “Why would you throw Daddy’s stuff away?”

Looking up from her dolls, she said “Because Daddy, those are the things that killed Jesus and I don’t want them in our house.”

Her Dad just starred at Jenny with a look of utter shock on his face.  He had never thought of it like that.  The fact that what was used to kill our Lord and Savior was indeed a household item.  It was something that almost every family has in their home.  It was surly a smaller version of what was used, but Jesus, who died for our sins, died on a cross that he was nailed to.  It really made for an interesting story the next week in his Sunday School Class.

The next week Jenny and her Dad sat down and talked about how he needed to have a hammer and why he needed to have one.  He explained what type of hammer and nails were used during the crucifixion and that it wasn’t what he had in the house.  Jenny agreed to let there be a hammer and nails in the house under one condition.  They had to frame a hammer and some nails so that when they looked at them in on the wall, they would remember that Jesus died for their sins.

Twenty five years later, the hammer and nails still hang on the wall.  An everyday remember to Jenny’s Dad of the love of Jesus Christ.