The Feast

Today is Easter! Do you know we celebrate on Easter? You can read about it in John 20:1-18 Jesus was dead. Really dead. But then God made him alive again! I've been thinking about that a lot, wondering what it means for you and me, and my good friend Little Barty Badger told me this story.

One day in Old Raven's Forest, Little Barty Badger and Esquilo the Squirrel were off on an adventure. It had been quite the time. Esquilo started off not even knowing his own name! But then, adventuring with Barty, he learned that he has a lot to offer the world. He can solve problems really fast, can see options and how something might play out and, most importantly, he learned that Adventurers Always Help. Those are the best adventures!

But now they were close to the end of their adventure. This whole thing started to get Esquilo to The Feast where he was going to meet other adventurers and, apparently, Old Raven himself. Turns out the forest was named after this giant black bear whose fur was as dark as a raven. Esquilo was excited. But mostly for the food. He was hungry!

They had been climbing up a mountain for a long time and it was cold. Esquilo didn't like being cold, but on he trudged. Then, there it was! The Feast was in a pocket of warm, bright air. It was time! They just had to cross a frozen river. Off to the right, the river unfroze and tumbled over a huge waterfall. It sounded like a looooooong way down.

Barty and Esquilo stopped and thought. There was no other way across; they just had to slowly, slowly penguin their way across the ice. They shrugged and got to it, Barty going first. It was, honestly, easier than Esquilo thought it would be. They were going to make it and nothing was going to go wrong!

Until... CRACK! right under their feet. The Badger and the Squirrel both stopped. They were a little more than half way across. If they fell in now, they'd get swept under the ice and over the waterfall before they could swim at all. 

"What do we do?" said Esquilo. Barty always knew what to do.

"I don't know," said Barty. All this time that Barty had been Adventuring with Esquilo, he had never seen the badger afraid. Esquilo thought quickly. He knew that they couldn't swim under the ice and that they couldn't make it to the other side. He also knew that the ice was cracking all around them. Suddenly, he knew what to do. Without another word, Esquilo the Squirrel picked up Barty Badger and threw him with all his might to the other side! But the ice gave way and as he tossed Barty, Esquilo fell into the frozen river.

Everything went quiet. Barty picked himself up on the far bank and turned around. Esquilo wasn't there. The squirrel wasn't anywhere. Just the river, moving dark and cold beneath the ice, carrying everything toward the cliff edge. Barty stood very still. His friend had gone into that frozen dark so that he didn't have to. He didn't know how long he stood there.

Numb and stunned, he walked to the cliff where the waterfall thundered and looked down, not sure what he was hoping to see. His friend was gone.

Suddenly, a giant black-furred paw shot up over the cliff edge. Old Raven’s powerful arms lifted him up onto the grass and he was... laughing? Barty was confused, but then Old Raven stood up and turned and Barty saw... Esquilo, nestled in Old Raven's giant paws, shivering but getting warm. He was laughing. Then Barty was laughing, too!

"Esquilo!" yelled Barty. "Old Raven saved you! And you saved me!"

"Of course," Esquilo's teeth were chattering. "Adventurers Always Help." The three adventurers laughed their way to the Feast.

Well, that's what the legend says, but I know one thing is true: the greatest friends go into the darkness ahead of us — and they're already waiting on the other side.