For Kids · 3 min with a grown-up
Joel was a messenger for God. He lived through a hard, hungry year — and he used it to help everyone remember to turn back to God.
Today's Story
One year, something happened that nobody ever forgot.
Locusts came. Locusts are little bugs, a bit like grasshoppers. But they did not come one or two at a time. They came in clouds — more bugs than you could ever count, so many they hid the sun.
And they were hungry. They landed on the gardens and the fields and ate every green thing. The grapevines, the fig trees, the wheat — munch, munch, munch — until the ground was bare and brown.
Soon there was very little food left. The farmers were sad. The animals were hungry too. Even the streams ran low.
That is when God's messenger Joel stood up and spoke. He did not yell. He gently said, “Tell your children about this day. Remember it. And let's do the most important thing of all — let's turn back to God together.”
So the people came. Old folks and little ones, farmers and shepherds, the whole town. They gathered in one place. And they called out to God with one big voice: “Help us, Lord.”
It was a hard year. But it pointed them straight back to the One who could make things grow again.
A Big Word
Memory Verse
Talk About It
- When something hard happens in your day — you get hurt, or a toy breaks, or a friend is mean — who is the first person you usually tell?
- The whole town came together to talk to God. Why do you think it helps to pray with other people instead of all alone?
- Joel told the people to remember the hard year and tell their kids about it. Can you think of a hard time when God helped your family?