Flat Stanley in Space

 

I wonder if you’ve ever heard of the Flat Stanley children’s books. Written back in the 90s by Jeff Brown, they are the quirky story of an American boy called Stanley Lambchop who had the misfortune of being squashed to being only an inch in thickness when a heavy pinboard fell on him in the night. Miraculously he survives, and lives the rest of his life as “Flat Stanley” and carries out all sorts of adventures.

I’m currently reading “Stanley in Space” to my youngest daughter. Flat Stanley, due to his previous experiences, gets asked by the President of the United States to go with his mum and dad on a special mission into space to meet a group of aliens.

All is going well, until they lose radio contact with earth, and it turns out that this alien race, called the Tyrrans, far from being friendly are out to capture Stanley and his spaceship, making them prisoners of their planet Tyrra.

Most scary of all is when they see an extremely large alien with a big moustache appear on the horizon ready to board their spaceship. It’s terrifying. But everything is turned around when Flat Stanley and his family realise that they are looking through a magnifying window that makes everything big. Rather than the alien species being large and terrifying, it turns out that the people of Tyrra are only 3 inches tall.

All fears are allayed, and the aliens make a truce with Stanley and his parents, and they walk around Tyrraville as giants like Gulliver on his travels.

Well you may not have been expecting the kids’ story of “Flat Stanley in Space” for your thought for the day today. But there is a Christian lesson to draw out! How many times have we been worried, even terrified of an event in the future, only to discover that it isn’t so bad after all. In fact, it turns out to be far better than we thought, even enjoyable or a bit comic. Jesus Christ says “do not worry about tomorrow, tomorrow will worry about itself!” Flat Stanley is just a made-up kids story. But thousands of Christians locally will tell you that Jesus Christ is a living reality, and he helps them with their fears, the greatest of which is death itself.

Once you put your trust in Jesus Christ, it doesn’t mean you’ll automatically be healthy, wealthy or wise. But you will find that Jesus Christ walks with you through all the challenges of life and even death, so take his advice, relevant to Flat Stanley, relevant to you and I! “Do not worry about tomorrow”.  Thanks for listening. 

Charlie Newcombe, 05/07/2023