This audio is AI-narrated and may mispronounce some names and places.

Jonah 1:17; 3:1 (KJV)

Uncle Ricky: Well, hello there, little friends! Welcome to Sunday School on the porch. I’m Uncle Ricky. We’ve got fine company today — Lucy, our young lady friend, is here — and Biscuit, the raccoon, has just come tearing up the steps like something was after him. Say hello, you two!

Lucy: Hi, everybody! I’m Lucy. Biscuit, why are you so out of breath?

Biscuit: And I’m Biscuit! Hello, friends! I’m out of breath because I’m FAST, that’s why. I raced all the way here from the creek, and nothing — I mean nothing — can outrun me. Not a dog, not a fox, not anything!

Uncle Ricky: Well now, Biscuit, that puts me in mind of a man in the Bible who tried to do some running himself. Only he wasn’t racing a fox. He was trying to outrun God. His name was Jonah.

Lucy: Outrun God? Uncle Ricky, nobody can outrun God. Can they?

Uncle Ricky: You’re right, young lady — but Jonah surely tried. God told Jonah, “Go to the city of Nineveh and preach to the people there.” But Jonah didn’t want to go. He didn’t like those people, and he didn’t want God to forgive them. So Jonah ran the other way — clear to the sea — and got on a ship sailing far, far from Nineveh.

Biscuit: A ship! Well, that’s smart running, if you ask me. I can’t swim near as fast as a ship can sail. How far did he get?

Uncle Ricky: Not far at all, son, because you can’t hide from God — not on a ship, not anywhere. God sent a great wind, and a mighty storm rose up on the sea. The waves crashed, the ship rocked and groaned, and the sailors were terribly afraid. But Jonah? Jonah had gone down inside the ship — and he was fast asleep!

Lucy: Asleep? In a storm like that? Uncle Ricky, didn’t the sailors wake him up?

Uncle Ricky: They did, Lucy. They woke him and asked, “Who are you? What’s happening to us?” And Jonah told them the truth. He said, “I am running away from the Lord. This storm is my fault. Pick me up and throw me into the sea, and the sea will be calm again.” The sailors didn’t want to — they rowed hard for shore — but the storm only grew worse. So at last, they picked Jonah up and cast him into the sea… and the moment they did, the storm stopped, and the sea was calm.

Biscuit: They threw him in?! But — but Jonah couldn’t outswim a storm! Could he? …Could he?

Uncle Ricky: He didn’t have to, Biscuit, because God was watching over him even then. The Bible says — Jonah, chapter 1, verse 17: “Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” A great fish, little friends — big enough to swallow a man whole — swallowed Jonah right up, and kept him safe in the middle of the sea.

Lucy: Three days and three nights inside a fish? Oh, Uncle Ricky — it must have been so dark in there. And quiet. What did Jonah DO all that time?

Uncle Ricky: The very best thing he could do, Lucy. He prayed. Down in the dark, Jonah told God he was sorry. He hadn’t listened, he had run, and he knew it. And God heard that prayer — God hears us anywhere, even in a place as dark and strange as the belly of a fish. Then the Bible says the Lord spoke to the fish, and the fish spit Jonah right out onto the dry land!

Biscuit: Spit him OUT! Ha! Three days inside a fish and — ptooey — out he comes! …I take it back, Uncle Ricky. Even I can’t outrun a fish story like that.

Uncle Ricky: And here’s the part I love best of all, little friends. The Bible says — Jonah, chapter 3, verse 1: “And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time.” The second time! God wasn’t finished with Jonah. He gave him another chance. And this time, Jonah went to Nineveh and preached, just as God said. And do you know what those people did? They listened. They told God they were sorry — every one of them — and God forgave that whole city.

Lucy: So God gave Jonah a second chance AND He gave Nineveh a second chance.

Uncle Ricky: That’s exactly right, young lady. That’s our Sunday School lesson, little friends. You can’t outrun God, and you don’t need to — because when we run the wrong way and we’re sorry, God forgives us and gives us another chance. Just like Jonah. So don’t run away — run TO Him. He’ll be glad to see you coming.