The Stunt Show Stand-in

“Howdy, pardner.” Andy tipped his too-big cowboy hat at a technician jogging by with a handful of cordless microphones.

Eva rolled her eyes. “You’re so embarrassing.”

“And yer as boring as a boot in a bog,” Andy responded in a drawl.

The Wanders were backstage at the Wild West stunt show that their Aunt Gabby directed for a local theme park. To celebrate the occasion, Andy had decided to dress and act like he was part of the show. Obviously, that was silly. No one in their right mind would ask an untrained child to participate in the rootinest, tootinest stunt show west of the Mississipp—

“I need one of you kids,” Aunt Gabby said. She’d just arrived red-faced and out of breath.

“I’m your man, ma’am,” Andy said like he’d been expecting this invitation all afternoon.

“For the stunts?” Mom asked.

“Yes, for the stunts.” Aunt Gabby saw the concern in her sister’s eyes, so she explained. “Our child actor just went home sick, and the show starts in less than an hour. I wouldn’t ask if it weren’t safe. Please.”

Mom looked at Dad for help with the decision.

Dad grinned. “Gotta let him get his energy out somehow.” He gave Andy a high five. “Ride ‘em cowboy.”

“Woo-woo-woo!” Andy pretended to shoot finger guns into the air.

Aunt Gabby breathed a sigh of relief. “Up here.” She led Andy up to a balcony over the bank set and pointed to an X taped to the balcony floor. “Toward the end of the show, you’ll stand here to watch the bank robbers attempt their getaway,” she explained.

“But I wanna stop ’em!” Andy said.

“You will. Look.” Aunt Gabby pointed to a platform hidden from the audience’s view. The platform held a sack of flour tied to an overhead beam by a long rope. “During the big climax, that’s going to swing toward you. It’s going to get very close. It’ll feel like it’s going to hit you, but I promise it won’t as long as you stand still on that X. Got it?”

Andy tipped his hat. “Yes, ma’am.”

“What are you going to do?” Aunt Gabby quizzed.

“Stand on the X.”

“Stand still on the X.” Aunt Gabby emphasized. “Then, when the bag starts swinging away from you, pretend to push it. It’ll knock over one of the robbers down on the street and cover him in flour.”

“That’s right!” Andy narrowed his eyes. “No one escapes the long arm of the law.”

Aunt Gabby pulled out her walkie-talkie. “I need someone up on platform eight. We’re practicing the flour bag swing.”

A few minutes later, everything was in place.

Mom aimed her camera at the balcony to capture the moment, and Eva clutched Dad’s hand while she watched.

“Action!” Aunt Gabby called.

The tech gently pushed the flour sack off the platform, swinging it toward Andy. The sack looked way bigger and moved way faster than Andy expected.

The sack looked way bigger and moved way faster than Andy expected. “Ahhhh!”

“Ahhhh!” He let out an unheroic squeal and held out his hands to stop the sack from smacking his face.

“No!” Aunt Gabby warned.

Smack!

The sack hit Andy’s outstretched arms, knocking him over and dumping flour everywhere.

“Andy!” Eva squealed.

Andy held a thumbs up in the air, then popped to his feet. “Let’s try it again.”

Aunt Gabby groaned and shook her head. Andy was covered head-to-toe in flour.

“This’ll come off!” Andy insisted, trying to wipe it. The flour just smeared. “Don’t you have another costume?”

“The only extra costume is a girl’s costume.” Aunt Gabby moaned.

All eyes turned to Eva.

“Oh no,” Eva said. “No, no, no.”

“I understand, sweetie,” Aunt Gabby said. “Heights get to me, too.”

“It’s not the heights,” Eva said. “It’s just—you never know what’s going to happen up there!”

That made Aunt Gabby pause. “What?”

Eva pointed at her brother. “Like that!”

“That’s because—” Aunt Gabby glanced at Andy dusting off his hat. “Let me show you something.”

Eva followed her aunt down the set, leaving Mom and Dad patting the flour out of Andy’s clothes.

“Team C,” Aunt Gabby called over the walkie-talkie. “Can we run the stagecoach leap?”

While people scurried to their places, Aunt Gabby pulled a tablet from a nearby backpack. “This is my favorite stunt in the whole show.”

“Ready!” A voice squawked over the walkie-talkie.

“Action!” Aunt Gabby called.

A sheriff climbed on top of the general store as tense music played. The sheriff scanned the street. Then, when the music swelled to a crescendo, he leaped off the building.

Eva gasped.

The sheriff landed on a trampoline hidden inside a hay wagon, sprung back into the air, then tumbled on top of the robbers’ stagecoach just as it rolled in front of the store.

“Perfect!” Aunt Gabby yelled, then smiled at Eva.

“You want me to do that too?” Eva asked.

“No.” Aunt Gabby laughed. “But with a few adjustments to the program, you could!” She turned the tablet to show Eva a diagram of the stunt they’d just watched. Sketches of the sheriff’s jump were overlaid with arrows and equations.

Eva leaned in closer while her aunt swiped to another diagram. This one illustrated the flour stunt with an equation predicting exactly how far the bag of flour would travel.

“Stunts feel scary because they seem unpredictable,” Aunt Gabby said. “But all our stunts start with a physics equation to figure out how an object or person will move through time and space. If we follow the math, we can be confident that they’ll work.”

Eva studied the equation.

“Sometimes, I get nervous,” Aunt Gabby admitted. “When that happens, I like to remind myself that the laws of physics come from God. And just like our Creator, they don’t change. Even in the Wild West, no one can break those laws.”

Eva looked from the equation to the balcony, then back to the equation. Finally, she sighed and said, “Okay.”

“You’ll do it?” Aunt Gabby asked.

Eva gave a little smile and uttered a phrase that would make her brother proud. “Ride ’em, cowboy.”

What’s the Point?

Physics is the branch of science that helps us understand how things move, work, and interact with energy and forces. The universe runs by precise laws of physics and math that God put in place during creation week (Genesis 1). These laws continue to work at all times because the Creator upholds the universe (Hebrews 1:3). By studying physics, we know how planets move, how things float or sink, how magnets work—and so much more! These processes wouldn’t have been possible if the earth had evolved from random chance and confusion. But God is a God of order, so it only makes sense that his creation is orderly too (1 Corinthians 14:33).