Maggie and Gus story

			Activities: Stories

Description:
Note: I strongly recommend that the story be told and not read.

Theme--Helping People In a couple of weeks, the grown-ups in our congregation will hear about something called “Guest at Your Table.” It’s a way that we can all help people who need help. But I will be talking about it with the children in our congregation today after we leave the service. That’s why I’ve chosen a story that’s supposed to help us think about why people help other people.
Story: Gus and Maggie Many years ago, there was a little girl named Margaret. Her friends called her Maggie. Maggie lived in a little speck of a town. There was a gas station and a few stores and houses, but other than that living in Maggie’s town was hardly different from living on a farm. One day Maggie was outside playing in her front yard when a mange, skinny, black, brown and white puppy wandered into her yard. Now Maggie liked dogs. In fact, it worried her sometimes that she liked dogs better than people because she knew she was supposed to like people better. She picked up the pup and ran into the house to show her mother. She poured a bowl of milk for it and asked her mother if they could keep it. People sometimes dumped pets off onto the highway and just left them there when they didn’t want to care for them anymore, and Maggie’s mother could tell by the way this pup’s ribs were sticking out that it was probably one of the stray dogs who had been dumped. So she said OK. Maggie could keep him. He lapped at the milk with such gusto that they named him Gus. And he and Maggie became best friends. Gus was a very smart dog. Maggie watched him one day at their neighbor’s house. Snoopy, the grouchy little dog that lived next door, was outside by his doghouse gnawing on a meaty bone. There was an evergreen tree standing nearby. Gus moved close enough to Snoopy’s bone to get Snoopy to chase him away. But when Snoopy chased him, Gus ran around the evergreen tree with Snoopy hot on his heals and back to the dog dish. Gus snatched up the bone and ran away with it. As the years passed, Maggie noticed that this sort of thing happened too often to not be planned. Gus outsmarted his dog neighbors and took their food on many occasions, and his tummy grew larger every year from so much success.

One night, Gus was left out in the yard when the family went to bed. When it was very late, everyone awoke to the doorbell ringing. They all got up to see who in the world could be at the door at this hour. When they opened the door, there was Gus. He had been scratching at the door to get in as he always did when he accidentally hit the doorbell. It took this one time to teach Gus that the little button next to the door was much better than scratching, and from that night on, Gus used the doorbell when he wanted to come in. The town that Maggie lived in was so small that dogs did not have to wear leashes. They went about their business as did people, and so Gus went just about everywhere that Maggie went. If Maggie left home without him, Gus would beg and moan until someone let him out of the house. Then he would race out into the yard sniffing at the ground until he found Maggie’s scent and bolt off after her. Yes, they were very good friends, Gus and Maggie. When Maggie was grown, Gus became sick with cancer. He got very sick very quickly. And Maggie carried him in her arms as they drove to the veterinarians office. Gus had to be killed so that he would not suffer any longer. When she handed Gus over to the vet, Maggie saw fear arise in her old friend’s eyes. He did not want Maggie to leave him, and she knew this. The look in his eyes left a hollow aching feeling inside of her for many years. But Maggie passed on through life without Gus. She fell in love more than once, had children, and raised them well. Before she knew it, she was growing old herself.

Through the years, Maggie continued to remember Gus on many occasions, especially when she saw someone who needed something. When she stopped in front of an old woman who had no place to live, sitting on a sidewalk in the city, surrounded by bags, Maggie remembered Gus’ eyes. When she saw children at a school where she worked who would wolf down Graham crackers as though they would never have enough, she remembered Gus’ ribs sticking out the day she first scooped him up out of the yard. So Maggie helped people. Not because she thought that she should, but because she felt the hollow aching feeling again when she saw people who needed help. One afternoon, Maggie felt tired. She had bursitis in one shoulder, and it was aching, so she lay down and closed her eyes. Her sleep was interrupted by a pain in her chest, but it went away when she opened her eyes and saw Gus sitting there. He was sitting in the front yard where she had first found him many years ago. There was a gentle breeze blowing, and Maggie knew that Gus could speak. She said to him, I’ve not been feeling well, Gus. Everything hurts these days. It’s no good getting old, you know. She noticed that Gus’ eyes were no longer fearful as they had been the last time she had seen them. He said to her, “You’ve done well, Maggie. You’ve done well.” And Maggie replied, “Well my old friend, you’ve been a good teacher.” Questions for Discussion What do you think Maggie meant when she said that Gus had been a good teacher? What did she learn from him? (Caring, compassion--how to feel what others are feeling. When she saw people who were hungry, it reminded her how her friend Gus had been hungry once. When she saw people who needed a home, it reminded her of her friend Gus, who needed a home once. Her love for Gus grew out toward people who were like him.) Why do you think Maggie helped other people who needed help? (because she had compassion for them--she felt what they were feeling; she felt pain when she saw people in need)

(Wednesday, January 20, 1999 at 13:26:24 (EST))