“Ooooh,” the children are impressed.“Watch my hands, you might see them slip,” JR continues.
“Woww!” the children chorus, seeing nothing amiss.
He bites into a five-peso coin and the coin breaks. He then puts the broken coin back into his hands, “One, two, three, four, five!” Voila! The coin is whole again!
He displays a few more stunts then ends with the coup de grace. He takes a chopped wood from his magic box and tries to balance it in one hand.
“This is heaven—that perfect place where God lives. He offers it to all of us so we can live there, too, forever. How do we get there?” The wood is heavier on one side so it falls to the ground. “Ooops, I have to do something to keep it in my hand.”
He picks it up and puts an object on the lighter side. “Do we go to heaven by doing good works?” Again, the wood falls to the ground. “No,” he says.
Everyone echoes, “Noooo.”
He picks it up again and puts another object to balance it. “Do we go to heaven by going to church every Sunday?” The wood falls.
The children chorus, “Noooo!”
“Do we go to heaven by smiling at all the people we meet and being kind to them? The wood falls.
The children give out a louder, “Noooo!”
He then takes off his belt and puts it on the wood. It balances well! “Do we go to heaven by accepting Jesus in our hearts—as our Lord and Savior?”
Everybody gets excited and says, “Yesssss!”
JR raises his hand with the well-balanced wood for everyone to ponder. The children swarm around him and look at the wood in awe. At this point, JR talks about the good news of salvation a bit more, explaining it to the children in their language. Then he ends the magical session with a prayer.
Seeing the children all sitting still, their eyes tightly shut and repeating after JR the prayer of acceptance, my eyes well up as I praise the Owner of heaven for this afternoon of magic only He can make possible through His grace.
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