Jonah and the Whale Bible story for kids

No sky, and no stars, and no sun coming up or going down.

No morning. No evening. Nothing at all to look at — and far off, on the other side of everything, the slow muffled sound of the sea.

And in the middle of all that nothing, a man was praying.

His name was Jonah.

Last time, you heard how he got here. The ship going the wrong way, the storm, the sailors who rowed until their hands were raw because they did not want to let him go. He did not expect to still be alive.

But God had sent a great fish. God had it ready, on purpose, ahead of time — the way you might set a blanket out for somebody long before they ever get cold. So the water closed over Jonah's head... and the fish was there. And Jonah was caught, and kept.

Do you remember Noah? Safe inside a boat, with all that water on the other side of the wood? This boat was much smaller. And this boat was alive. But the idea was the same — a man on the inside, and the whole ocean kept out.

Three days. And three nights. Though you could not have told one from the other in there. Nothing to count but your own breathing.

And that is the whole story, little one. A man in the dark, talking to God.

Here is some of what he said. It is written down in the Bible.

I called out to the Lord in my trouble, and He answered me.

The waters closed in over me. The deep was all around me. Seaweed wound about my head.

I went down to the bottom of the mountains, where the roots of them are.

As far down as down goes.

But You brought my life up. Up out of the pit, O Lord my God.

Stop there a moment. Jonah was still inside the fish when he said that. Still at the bottom of everything. And he said thank You anyway.

When my life was slipping away, he prayed, I remembered the Lord. And my prayer came to You — all the way up. Up through the water. Up through the dark. Past the waves and the weather... until it arrived.

There is no place so deep that a prayer cannot get out of it.

Salvation belongs to the Lord.

Which is Jonah's own way of saying: I cannot rescue myself. But He can. And He does.

Then God said something to a great fish. The Bible does not tell us what. We do not get to know.

And the great fish listened. And it put Jonah down on dry land.

Sand under his hands. Air on his face. And the sky — the whole wide sky, right where it had been the entire time.

Three days in the dark. And God was there for every hour of them. Not on the way down, not at the bottom, not on the way up was Jonah ever out of reach.

And far away, on the other side of a great deal of water, there was still a city. God had not forgotten about it. And Jonah's road was about to start all over again.

And God was with him. God was with her. God is with you, too.

Hush now, little one. May the same God who let one prayer climb all the way up from the bottom of the sea... let nothing you ever say have too far to travel.