By Ken Woodley
“I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
—Matthew 18:3
Once upon a time on a blue planet deep in space, two children stood looking through a window at the night-time sky. Darkness was everywhere and they heard the darkness thunder.
The date was December 25. A day of no meaning whatsoever for the children, nor anyone else in their world. Just another Tuesday.
One-by-one, all of the stars disappeared.
The children reached for each other when all of the light was gone.
The darkness always scared them when it thundered with storms that swallowed all of the stars with its booming clouds. They held each other’s hands, looked up into the sky and decided to pray.
“How far can you see?” Liam asked when they had finished praying.
“I think I can see to the bottom of the sky, but it’s too dark to be sure,” Fiona told him.
“Can you see God anywhere?” he asked.
“No,” she replied. “Just like all of the other scary nights, I don’t see God at all.”
Their eyes filled with tears.
But, far, far away, a Little Star that had just been born heard the children calling. Their voices sounded so distant, as if they were on the other side of the universe.
“Please,” it heard them pray, “there is a terrible storm thundering toward us in the darkness. If you are really there, please come to us. Let us see you. Be with us and protect us from the thundering darkness.”
The Little Star looked around. None of the other stars seemed to hear the children calling. It was surprised. “Me? They are calling me?” it wondered. “I am such a very small star. There are much bigger and brighter lights than me.”
But every single one of those much bigger and brighter lights stayed right where they were. The Little Star, however, began its long journey toward the children calling out from across the universe.
“Can’t anyone else hear them?” the Little Star asked the universe.
“Oh, yes, all of us hear them,” a stunning supernova said as the Little Star flickered on its way, “but we are far too busy being spectacular Superstars. We’ve got no time for two children on the other side of universe.”
The supernova looked at the Little Star and chuckled.
“And just who do you think you are?” it asked. “God? A Messiah? You’re so small and hardly shine at all. You belong in a manger. In fact, I can barely see you. How could you possibly help anybody?”
The Little Star seemed to hear the entire universe laughing but it kept on going and had soon left the skeptics and their doubts far behind him.
“Perhaps they are right, but maybe I am exactly what the children need,” it thought. “Perhaps I am the only one who can help them because I am the only one who wants to help them, the only one who cares. I might just be the Little Star that shines the light of Truest Love.”
On the blue planet, the children were still standing side by side in the darkness, looking up toward the bottom of the sky.
“Do you see God yet?” Fiona asked.
“No,” Liam answered, “Maybe God doesn’t hear us. Maybe God’s not listening.”
“I wonder if God’s even real,” she said. “Maybe God is only make-believe, like unicorns and magic dragons.”
But they kept on looking because they wanted God to be very true and absolutely real and on the way to save them.
Soon the Little Star saw a galaxy called the Milky Way, which looked like a humongous spinning pinwheel. “I think I’m almost there,” it thought.
And then, yes, it saw the blue planet in a solar system, circling a sunny star, but half of the blue planet was covered in the darkness of night.
The Little Star knew exactly where to find the children and just what to do when it got there.
“I’m ready to give up looking for God forever,” Liam sighed. “I don’t see anything but a very large lightning bug.”
Fiona looked as the light grew closer. “That’s no lightning bug,” she said.
“Here I am,” the Little Star told them as it flew through their half-opened window.
“Here is who?” Liam asked. “What are you?”
“I am me,” answered the Little Star. “I was on the other side of the universe and heard you praying.”
“You aren’t what we expected,” the children told him. “You are much smaller and far different than we imagined.”
“Well,” the Little Star admitted, “I’m certainly no Tony-winning Super Star breaking box office records on Broadway but I am who I am and I believe I am the answer to your prayer, if you’ll let me try.”
The Little Star’s belief in itself was so strong that Fiona and Liam decided to listen to what it had to say about the light it had brought them. It visited them for a week and they felt their faith growing stronger and deeper.
During the day, the Little Star stayed in Fiona’s sock drawer—after she removed all of the socks and put them under her bed. “It’s dark in the drawer,” the Little Star explained. “That makes it the perfect place to practice shining my light of Truest Love.”
Just before sunset each day, Fiona and Liam would take the Little Star outside, where it shone in the darkness all night long, right outside their bedroom windows.
But one night the Little Star told them that it would be leaving in the morning.
“Now that I have come to your blue planet,” it explained, “I hear so many others calling out to me from the darkness of their own storms. I must bring my light to them, too, if they will let me.”
The children were crestfallen. “Please don’t go,” they pleaded.
“I will only appear to be gone,” the Little Star assured them. “The light I shine remains even after it seems that I have left you. And I will stay at the very bottom of the sky, as close to you—as close to everyone—as I can.”
The children looked at one another and asked the very same question at the exact same time.
“How can we be sure that you are still with us?”
The Little Star looked deeply into their eyes. “There is one other place where you can always find me, even when all of the other lights in the world seem to go out and storm clouds hide even the biggest, brightest stars, the moon, and the Milky Way.”
“Please tell us where that place is,” they asked.
“You will always find my light shining,” the Little Star told them, “in the eyes of someone who loves you forever.”
That night Fiona and Liam dreamed dreams that were overflowing with a radiant love-filled light and the sound of singing flowers. When they awoke in the morning the Little Star did indeed seem to be gone.
But it was still there. Just as it had promised them. They were certain of that because the Little Star had told them the truth.
Liam and Fiona could see the Little Star’s light shining in each other’s eyes.
Even on the stormiest nights when the clouds hid everything else in the heavens above, they had faith that the Little Star’s small, bright twinkling light of Truest Love was at the very bottom of the sky, as close to them as it could get.
Or even closer.
Because for some reason, they could always feel it shining deep inside them, sending ripples of light through their souls.
“This is such a miraculous feeling,” Fiona said. “Something this wondrous deserves a special name, one that is filled with love.”
Liam agreed and the two of them began compiling a long list of possibilities. Long names, short names, old names and new names that they made up out of their imagination, but none of them seemed to fit.
They finally stopped trying to think of names and just looked into each others eyes, instead.
“I see a name,” Fiona said, looking at Liam.
“I see one, too,” Liam answered, gazing at Fiona.
“I also feel it,” Liam told her.
“I know,” she replied. “So do I.”
“The name is Jesus, isn’t it?” Liam said.
“Yes,” Fiona agreed, “it is Jesus.”
And the name always was Jesus for as long as they lived.
And even after that.
Forever and ever after that.
(Copyright Ken Woodley 2025)
By Ken Woodley
“I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
—Matthew 18:3
Once upon a time on a blue planet deep in space, two children stood looking through a window at the night-time sky. Darkness was everywhere and they heard the darkness thunder.
The date was December 25. A day of no meaning whatsoever for the children, nor anyone else in their world. Just another Tuesday.
One-by-one, all of the stars disappeared.
The children reached for each other when all of the light was gone.
The darkness always scared them when it thundered with storms that swallowed all of the stars with its booming clouds. They held each other’s hands, looked up into the sky and decided to pray.
“How far can you see?” Liam asked when they had finished praying.
“I think I can see to the bottom of the sky, but it’s too dark to be sure,” Fiona told him.
“Can you see God anywhere?” he asked.
“No,” she replied. “Just like all of the other scary nights, I don’t see God at all.”
Their eyes filled with tears.
But, far, far away, a Little Star that had just been born heard the children calling. Their voices sounded so distant, as if they were on the other side of the universe.
“Please,” it heard them pray, “there is a terrible storm thundering toward us in the darkness. If you are really there, please come to us. Let us see you. Be with us and protect us from the thundering darkness.”
The Little Star looked around. None of the other stars seemed to hear the children calling. It was surprised. “Me? They are calling me?” it wondered. “I am such a very small star. There are much bigger and brighter lights than me.”
But every single one of those much bigger and brighter lights stayed right where they were. The Little Star, however, began its long journey toward the children calling out from across the universe.
“Can’t anyone else hear them?” the Little Star asked the universe.
“Oh, yes, all of us hear them,” a stunning supernova said as the Little Star flickered on its way, “but we are far too busy being spectacular Superstars. We’ve got no time for two children on the other side of universe.”
The supernova looked at the Little Star and chuckled.
“And just who do you think you are?” it asked. “God? A Messiah? You’re so small and hardly shine at all. You belong in a manger. In fact, I can barely see you. How could you possibly help anybody?”
The Little Star seemed to hear the entire universe laughing but it kept on going and had soon left the skeptics and their doubts far behind him.
“Perhaps they are right, but maybe I am exactly what the children need,” it thought. “Perhaps I am the only one who can help them because I am the only one who wants to help them, the only one who cares. I might just be the Little Star that shines the light of Truest Love.”
On the blue planet, the children were still standing side by side in the darkness, looking up toward the bottom of the sky.
“Do you see God yet?” Fiona asked.
“No,” Liam answered, “Maybe God doesn’t hear us. Maybe God’s not listening.”
“I wonder if God’s even real,” she said. “Maybe God is only make-believe, like unicorns and magic dragons.”
But they kept on looking because they wanted God to be very true and absolutely real and on the way to save them.
Soon the Little Star saw a galaxy called the Milky Way, which looked like a humongous spinning pinwheel. “I think I’m almost there,” it thought.
And then, yes, it saw the blue planet in a solar system, circling a sunny star, but half of the blue planet was covered in the darkness of night.
The Little Star knew exactly where to find the children and just what to do when it got there.
“I’m ready to give up looking for God forever,” Liam sighed. “I don’t see anything but a very large lightning bug.”
Fiona looked as the light grew closer. “That’s no lightning bug,” she said.
“Here I am,” the Little Star told them as it flew through their half-opened window.
“Here is who?” Liam asked. “What are you?”
“I am me,” answered the Little Star. “I was on the other side of the universe and heard you praying.”
“You aren’t what we expected,” the children told him. “You are much smaller and far different than we imagined.”
“Well,” the Little Star admitted, “I’m certainly no Tony-winning Super Star breaking box office records on Broadway but I am who I am and I believe I am the answer to your prayer, if you’ll let me try.”
The Little Star’s belief in itself was so strong that Fiona and Liam decided to listen to what it had to say about the light it had brought them. It visited them for a week and they felt their faith growing stronger and deeper.
During the day, the Little Star stayed in Fiona’s sock drawer—after she removed all of the socks and put them under her bed. “It’s dark in the drawer,” the Little Star explained. “That makes it the perfect place to practice shining my light of Truest Love.”
Just before sunset each day, Fiona and Liam would take the Little Star outside, where it shone in the darkness all night long, right outside their bedroom windows.
But one night the Little Star told them that it would be leaving in the morning.
“Now that I have come to your blue planet,” it explained, “I hear so many others calling out to me from the darkness of their own storms. I must bring my light to them, too, if they will let me.”
The children were crestfallen. “Please don’t go,” they pleaded.
“I will only appear to be gone,” the Little Star assured them. “The light I shine remains even after it seems that I have left you. And I will stay at the very bottom of the sky, as close to you—as close to everyone—as I can.”
The children looked at one another and asked the very same question at the exact same time.
“How can we be sure that you are still with us?”
The Little Star looked deeply into their eyes. “There is one other place where you can always find me, even when all of the other lights in the world seem to go out and storm clouds hide even the biggest, brightest stars, the moon, and the Milky Way.”
“Please tell us where that place is,” they asked.
“You will always find my light shining,” the Little Star told them, “in the eyes of someone who loves you forever.”
That night Fiona and Liam dreamed dreams that were overflowing with a radiant love-filled light and the sound of singing flowers. When they awoke in the morning the Little Star did indeed seem to be gone.
But it was still there. Just as it had promised them. They were certain of that because the Little Star had told them the truth.
Liam and Fiona could see the Little Star’s light shining in each other’s eyes.
Even on the stormiest nights when the clouds hid everything else in the heavens above, they had faith that the Little Star’s small, bright twinkling light of Truest Love was at the very bottom of the sky, as close to them as it could get.
Or even closer.
Because for some reason, they could always feel it shining deep inside them, sending ripples of light through their souls.
“This is such a miraculous feeling,” Fiona said. “Something this wondrous deserves a special name, one that is filled with love.”
Liam agreed and the two of them began compiling a long list of possibilities. Long names, short names, old names and new names that they made up out of their imagination, but none of them seemed to fit.
They finally stopped trying to think of names and just looked into each others eyes, instead.
“I see a name,” Fiona said, looking at Liam.
“I see one, too,” Liam answered, gazing at Fiona.
“I also feel it,” Liam told her.
“I know,” she replied. “So do I.”
“The name is Jesus, isn’t it?” Liam said.
“Yes,” Fiona agreed, “it is Jesus.”
And the name always was Jesus for as long as they lived.
And even after that.
Forever and ever after that.
Ken Woodley 