The Whippersnapper

(This is an excerpt from my book about two knights who are lost in the wilderness and meet a strange creature. It shows how the world thinks. Worldly people just believe in themselves. They don't need God. Or at least, that's what they always say. I've written in parable form the mechanics of what worldly people actually think when they reject God. This is sort of like Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis.)


“He said his name was Mr. Whippersnapper or just Whippersnapper for short.

 

“It said it merely wanted to ask us some questions.

 

 “The monster’s smile seemed to grow as it starred at both of us and his whole body seemed to glow even brighter.

 

“The first question was something about who do we admire the most: the one person, living or dead that we looked up to as our hero.

 

"Then it said, ‘What about your saint?’

 

“We both agreed that St. Patrick Nubar, the warrior musician who is the hero of every Octamanian knight, was someone we looked up to. However, I mentioned he was dead now.

 

 “Then he said something real strange. He asked us about what we thought about the Good Shepherd.

 

“The mention of that name brought frowns to both of us.

 

“I spoke up now first and answered honestly. I said that we’ve been taught some about him but we had never actually met him.

 

“Smuff added that he didn’t know if the Good Shepherd really existed, although some people have said they had met him. He thought it was a bunch of tall tales and make-believe stories.

 

“Then, Smuff went on to talk more about St Patrick. He said something like:  ‘We know he ‘ears us! See this?’ He pulled a thin gold chain out of his shirt that had a small medal dangling on it. It was a charm and he told the Wippersnapper it was a small likeness of St Patrick which the Witch had given to him.

 

“The Whippersnapper seemed pleased with this answer. Then it said it had two more questions for us and they were very important ones. One was: why we prayed to anyone or had faith in anybody. Why couldn’t we have faith in ourselves? Did we really need a saint or god to inspire us? Couldn’t we do great things without Delon (or God)?

 

“It was more than two questions, so we thought about them for a few minutes.

 

“’Belief in yourself? What’s that?’ I asked him back.

 

“He went on to say that we didn’t have to have faith in anybody but ourselves; not even St. Patrick or Delon or the Good Shepherd.  Before he let us go, he wanted a promise from us to do a favor for him. He wanted to always be our friend. He said he wanted both of us to help Lord Loving write something about the twenty laws of funkyjunk. I think he said ‘twenty’…and I had no clue what funkyjunk was.

 

“So, we both nodded our heads. I was tired, wet and cold and suddenly got the urge to go home and sleep in my own bed.

 

“He was really happy that we would go along with him.  And, he wanted us to tell everyone the same message – to believe in themselves. ‘It’s foolish to believe any other way.’ is the exact quote. The creature was noddin’ and its smile was real broad but deep down inside, but I still didn’t trust it.”

 

from the book The Land of Efacia by Laura Bentz