The Hunt for Brownie Bear

“Good morning, Justin.” Jessie greeted her friend as he opened the door.

Justin gave her a weak smile and rubbed his eyes. “Ellie kept crying last night. Now everyone’s tired.”

“Oh, that’s too bad.” Justin led Jessie into the kitchen where he sat down to finish his soggy cereal.

“Hello, Jessie,” Justin’s mom said after a yawn. “Wow! What a night.”

“Why can’t Ellie sleep, Aunt Kristi?” Jessie asked Justin’s mom.

“She lost her favorite stuffy,” Justin blurted between bites of cereal.

“Shh!” Mom hissed at Justin.

Ellie, Justin’s little sister, sat in her high chair picking at her pieces of toast. But when she heard Justin say, “stuffy,” her lip started to quiver.

“Oops. Sorry,” Justin whispered.

But it was too late.

Ellie’s face crumpled as she cried, “I want Brownie Bear!”

Jessie patted Ellie’s hand. “It’s okay, Ellie. Justin and I will find Brownie Bear. Won’t we, Justin?”

She turned to her friend. Justin sank down in his chair.

“I already searched the whole house,” he said. “How come it’s always so hard to find something when you want it?”

“Well,” said Mom. “Not everything is hard to find. God has shared his wisdom with us. And he put it into his Word so we can find it.”

“You mean if we don’t know what to do, the Bible will help us figure it out?” asked Jessie.

“That’s right. The Bible has lots of help for every day, like how to be a good friend, how to be kind, and lots more. But we have to read and study it to know what it says.”

“Hey. Maybe we should pray and God will help us find the bear.”

“That’s a wise idea,” Mom agreed, and then prayed that they would find the bear for Ellie.

After breakfast, Ellie toddled into the living room and sat down on the floor.

“Look what I found, Ellie,” Justin said, handing his sister a stuffed animal.

Ellie reached up excitedly but tossed the stuffy aside. “That’s not Brownie. That’s Cuddles. I want Brownie.”

Then Jessie tried, “How about this cute elephant?”

“No, no! That’s Tibbers. I want Brownie. Please find Brownie.”

“I guess we’ll have to go on a bear hunt,” said Justin.

“Let’s look under the couch,” Jessie suggested.

Ellie sat in the middle of the room waiting for her beloved bear while Justin and Jessie searched every nook and cranny. But Brownie was nowhere to be found.

“Maybe Ellie left it somewhere,” Jessie suggested. “Did you go anywhere in the car yesterday?”

“Nope,” Justin replied. “But she did go in the family room to color.”

Justin and Jessie ran to the family room. Ellie followed close behind. Jessie reached under the big chair.

“Hey! I think I got it,” she said, pulling on something soft. “There!” she said with a big smile. But her smile turned to a frown when she saw what she had pulled out.

“That’s not Brownie,” Ellie announced sadly. “That’s Pooky.”

“Hmmph.” Jessie plopped down on the chair. “Where else did Ellie go yesterday?”

Justin thought hard. “Well, she took a nap. Maybe she left her bear under the blankets.”

Jessie leaped from her chair. “Let’s go check!”

In Ellie’s room, the kids hurriedly searched.

“It’s not here,” said Justin, fishing through Ellie’s blankets. “But here’s her hippo. Maybe she’ll like it.”

Justin and Jessie went back to the living room and handed the hippo to Ellie.

“Here’s a little friend, Ellie.”

Ellie looked at the hippo then shook her head. “That’s not Brownie,” she whimpered, “That’s Pudding.” She sniffled and wiped her teary eyes.

“Don’t cry, Ellie,” Justin said, “we’ll keep looking. Do you know where you put Brownie?”

Ellie shrugged her shoulders. She couldn’t remember.

Justin tried to think. “She took her nap, then Mom gave her a snack.”

“Let’s look in there,” Jessie suggested running toward the kitchen.

The kids searched under the table and chairs. They opened the cupboard doors—and even rummaged through the refrigerator.

“I give up,” Justin sighed as he stared into the refrigerator. Suddenly, he remembered something. “Hey! Juice!”

“Huh?” asked Jessie, running to his side. “I’m not thirsty right now,” she said.

“No, I got it! I know where the bear is!” Justin exclaimed.

“Where is it?” Jessie asked excitedly. “What about the juice?”

Justin explained, “Yesterday, Ellie spilled her juice. It went all over her bear and Mom put it in the washing machine.”

They sprinted to the laundry room and opened up the washer. Sure enough, lying in the bottom of the machine was a soggy, brown bear.

“We found Brownie!” they shouted.

“That’s wonderful!” Mom exclaimed.

She scooped up Ellie and dashed into the laundry room.

“There he is, Ellie.” Mom held Ellie up to see inside the washing machine. “I forgot I washed him yesterday.”

Ellie peered down into the washer.

“Brownie!” she exclaimed and clapped her hands eagerly. “But he’s wet. Dry him, Mommy. Please.”

Mom tossed Brownie into the dryer. Ellie watched through the dryer window as the little stuffy bumped around and around. Soon, the little bear was clean, dry, and fluffy again.

Ellie hugged Brownie close. “Thank you!” she said.

“You’re welcome,” Mom replied. “And thank you to Justin and Jessie. They did a lot of work searching for Brownie.”

“They good searchers!” Ellie agreed.

“Yes. They were kind to help you. That makes God happy.”

“And Brownie happy, too!”

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