The Cranberry Village

Chapter 1: The Cranberry Island; the story of how things began

The Cranberry Island, as it is called, is not really an island. There is a long skinny spit of sand connecting it to the mainland. When the tide is particularly high, the sand bridge is covered, and the peninsula really is an island. But when the tide is low, you can walk back and forth from the island to the mainland as much as you please. It is a beautiful walk too. The sand is soft and warm, and on either side of you are great open stretches of turquoise water, lapping gently against the sides of the spit of land.

If you walked down the spit of land toward the mainland, you would come to a place of forests and hills and streams. If you kept walking, the forest would thin out, and there would be plains, great stretches of hilly grassy plains with trees only in the bottoms where a stream runs through. And if you kept walking and walking for miles and miles, you would come to mountains, jagged towering mountains, covered with snow. They are proud and majestic against the sky, breathtaking to look at, but they are cold and secretive and full of dangers.

The Cranberry Island is not like that at all. It is warm and safe, for the sun shines most of the year there, and even in winter, temperatures do not drop too low.

For years no one knew about this special island or the secrets it contained.

But one day, one old rabbit who lived far away in an ordinary rabbit hole decided to go for a walk.

And she kept walking and walking. I do not know why she walked so far that day. I think maybe it was because the day was so nice, and she did not want to go back to her rabbit hole. The sun shone down warmly through the leaves on the treetops and made little patches of yellow light on the shady forest floor. Overhead, leafy tree branches rustled in a slight breeze. Everything smelled fresh and clean. All these things made the rabbit, whose name was Mrs. Cranberry, long to keep on walking among them.

And besides, the rabbit hole was lonely, for Mrs. Cranberry lived there all by herself. She did not want to go back there just yet. She wanted to stay out here in the beautiful forest with the birds and the chipmunks, who were her friends, playing around her.

 So she did. All at once, she came out of the forest onto the beach. The tide was low, and there was the sandy spit of land stretching out into the water, the waves lapping gently against it, and the island far out in the distance, hazy in the afternoon light.

It surely felt like a magical afternoon, and Mrs. Cranberry, gripped by the beauty and the tingling sense of adventure, made her way noiselessly along the spit of land. For it seemed as though the tiniest sound or misstep would shatter the magic of that moment.

Before long, she came to the end of the spit and onto the island. Here she paused a moment, wondering if she should explore around the perimeter of the island or investigate the interior. This decision made, Mrs. Cranberry softly padded into the wooded center of the island. She had not walked far when all at once, she came over a little crest, and there before her was the most beautiful sight she had ever seen. There before her, nestled in the trees, was a cranberry bog.

Millions of bright red cranberries sparkled and glittered in the afternoon sun shining down through the leaves like rubies in a king’s treasure room. Their leaves were dark green, and the clear water underneath caught their sparkling reflection, making it look as if there were another cranberry garden beneath the ripples.

Old Mrs. Cranberry could not take her eyes off the bright gems. Right then and there, she decided to make a home in that enchanted place and never return to that lonely, ordinary rabbit hole. So she stayed.

And Mrs. Cranberry lives there still in a little cottage underneath a spreading willow tree, where the warm, tart smell of the berries wafts on the breeze, and the brilliant array of colors illuminates even the night.

Before long, other animals learned about the island and the kind old rabbit who lived there, and they came to visit. Many of them stayed. And so the Cranberry Village came to be.

But no one remembers now whether it was named after the sparkling bog or the old rabbit that sits by it and tells stories to all the village children, teaching them how to pick the cranberries. The stories she tells are so wonderful that the words she hears most often are, “Please, Mrs. Cranberry, tell me a story!”

So she sits down and tells them the secrets of the cranberry bog and of the village, secrets which she has learned in all her years in this special place.

I am going to tell you many of these stories over the next few months, as well as all about the animals who now live in that village and the adventures they have had.

So however busy your life is, I urge you to take a moment, stop, and listen to a story. And if you ever go walking in the woods on a quiet afternoon, when the branches are gently rustling and sunlight is sifting through the leaves and making golden patches on the floor, stop for a moment and listen.

Then maybe, just maybe, if you look and listen hard enough, you will find yourself in a special world of your own, a place as magical as the Cranberry Island, surrounded by the beauty and wonder of God’s Creation. And then you will come to better understand and know the One Who made it all.

Stop and listen, really listen, to these stories. Because though Mrs. Cranberry and the village and the island are just pretend, the secrets Mrs. Cranberry tells are actually true.

The Cranberry Secret: Would you like to hear Mrs. Cranberry’s first true secret that she uncovered that day when she discovered the cranberry bog? She is eager to share it with you.

When Mrs. Cranberry saw that beautiful cranberry bog, she knew it could not have just happened by itself. Somebody must have made it. Then she knew that Someone must have made her too, and that that Someone must love her very much and think she was very special. That Someone is God. He loves you very much too, and you are special because He made you. He wants you to be with Him and love Him forever (Genesis 1:1; Psalm 139:13-16; Ezekiel 18:23; John 3:16).

But what Mrs. Cranberry also realized was that God is so perfect and good, that she had to be perfectly good to be with Him. You also must be perfectly good to be with Him. Mrs. Cranberry knew she was not perfectly good.

Are you perfectly good? Have you ever told a lie or stolen something? Have you ever used God’s perfect, holy name as a curse word? Have you ever disobeyed your parents or hated someone? God says hating someone is the same as killing them. These things are called sin. God says not to do them. If you have ever done any of these things even once, you have disobeyed God. The punishment for disobeying God is death and Hell (Romans 3:23, 6:23; James 2:10; Revelation 4:8, 20:14-15, 21:27).

But here is the cranberry secret! God still loves you so much! I cannot even begin to write how much He loves you. So this is what He did. God became a man—Jesus—and He died on a cross to take on Himself your punishment. Though He is perfectly good, He died for your sins instead of you! He was buried in a tomb, but He didn’t stay dead. He came alive again and went back up to Heaven. Because Jesus took your punishment on the cross, He can forgive your sins and make you clean (Romans 5:8-9; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 John 1:9).

And now that you know the secret, you have two choices. You can accept Jesus or reject Him. To reject something is to want nothing to do with that thing. To reject Jesus means you ignore what He did for you. You keep on sinning and living how you want to live (John 3:36). 

But to accept something is to take it as your own. How do you take Jesus’ gift of forgiveness as your own?  You must trust that Jesus died for your sin, and that He alone can take away your sin. When Jesus takes away your sin, you don’t want to sin anymore or live your life your way—you want to live like Jesus wants you to live. You can find this out by reading His Words in the Bible and by simply talking to Him! This is called praying (Mark 1:15; Acts 3:19, 16:31; Romans 10:9-10; 1 John 2:3-6).

So what will you choose? Will you accept Jesus or reject Him?

Check out Romans 5:8 and 2 Corinthians 5:21!

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