SYNOPSES

Jamie and the Best Stone in the World
Jamie McDorwuff is very proud of his fine beach with its collection of beautiful stones.  His pride turns to greed and he becomes obsessed by the thought of owning the very best beach in the even farthest north.  Suspicious of the other McDorwuffs, Jamie builds a fence around his beach.   The worried McDorwuffs ask God to give Jamie a stern talking to.  But that is not God's way....

When Jamie hears about the best stone in the world he determines to own it.  After a long search he finds it and takes it home.  But his beach is no longer perfect - protected by its fence, none of the McDorwuffs could tend it in Jamie's absence.   Jamie blames the best stone in the world for his troubles.  But when he tries to throw it into the deepest part of the loch, God stops him and tells him he has no-one to blame but himself.

A sadder and wiser Jamie rows back to shore to find the McDorwuffs waiting to help him clean his beach and welcome him home.  

And God smiled as he set the most beautiful stone in the world back in the place where Jamie had found it.  It had served its purpose.  And that was God's way.

 

Angus and the Christmas Present
Angus McDorwuff has a problem.  What should he give his friend, Fiona, for Christmas when he asks her to marry him and share his postbox home?  He goes to God for advice.  

Rejecting the sun as too hot, Angus asks for the moon and stars and sets off in search of them.  In a shepherd's hut an old McDorwuff is waiting to give him a parcel. The moon and the stars!  But when Angus unwraps it he finds that the moon is tarnished and one of the stars has a broken point.  He accuses God of cheating him.  God tells Angus that he  could not let him have the real ones for they are needed by everyone in the world.  The star is needed to shine over the stable where his son is born at Christmas and the moon to light the way for the shepherds and wise men. 

Angus is ashamed of his selfishness.  He is also ashamed of the present, but Fiona tells him that it is the best she has ever had.  She promises to mend them so that they will be able to hang them together in their house.

Angus looked at Fiona.  High above them the clouds parted and the moon shed its bright, silver light, while the stars twinkled and gleamed.  And God smiled and was glad that Angus would no longer be lonely.  For that was God's way.

Robbie and the Polar Bear
Ignoring the warning that polar bears have been sighted, Robbie sets off for a walk.  Polar bears are greatly feared, for they regard McDorwuffs as a tasty delicacy but Robbie is not afraid.  He is a loner who shuns the company of other McDorwuffs and he prides himself on never asking for help.  But when a fall of snow causes a landslide, trapping his leg under a large boulder, Robbie is eventually forced to ask for help from God.  

It seems his prayer is answered when three McDorwuffs come into sight.  However they don't see Robbie - all they see is a white-shrouded figure in a ditch which they mistake for a polar bear.  They hurry away.  Robbie is not impressed by God's efforts on his behalf.  He is even less impressed  when a real polar bear arrives.  Despite his fears, however, the polar bear does not eat him.  It carries him gently to McDorwuff Town Hall.  The McDorwuffs rush out, ready to beat off the attack but they find no sign of the bear, not even a footprint.  Instead they find Robbie, unconscious but alive.

And God smiled as they lifted Robbie up and carried him into the hall.  For that was God's way.

Fergus Travels South
Fergus McDorwuff is bored with his life as rockherd.  He wants change, adventure, excitement.  His brother, Stuart, can't understand his restlessness and asks Hamish, head of the clan, for advice.  Hamish speaks to God, who tells him to let Fergus go.  With a supply of precious stones, Fergus sets off. 

After a long journey he reaches a large city where he quickly becomes a much sought-after celebrity.  For a while he forgets his old life, but when his money runs out and he is alone and starving on a park bench he begins to remember the life he has left behind.  God watches him and is sorry for him but says nothing, for that is not God's way.

At last Fergus remembers God and asks for help.  With God beside him, Fergus makes the long and hard journey back to the land of the even farthest north.  As the McDorwuffs prepare a feast of welcome, Stuart protests.  Why, he demands, should his brother be treated as a returning hero?  But when Fergus arrives Stuart forgets his anger.

And God watched as Stuart came running down the hillside to be the first to meet Fergus and welcome him home.  When God saw the happiness on the faces of both the brothers, he was happy too.  For that was his way.

Alasdair and the Clan War
When shepherds arrive in the land of the even farthest north, Alasdair is horrified.  He is appalled at the thought of strangers settling on their land, grazing sheep on their hills and taking stones for their houses.  The McDorwuffs ask God for advice but God does not give it for to give advice where it is not wanted is not God's way.  

Headed by Alasdair, the McDorwuffs conduct a campaign against the shepherds who retaliate by setting traps for the McDorwuffs.  The McDorwuffs neglect the land of the even farthest north as Alasdair makes plans to rid themselves of the shepherds.  However his plan backfires when a lamb, searching for its mother, is in danger of being killed by Alasdair's trap.  Realising the enormity of what he was planning to do, Alasdair risks his own life in order to save the lamb before asking God to tell them what they did wrong.  Together the shepherds and McDorwuffs plant signs - red warning triangles with pictures of falling rocks as a warning and a reminder.

And God smiled to see them working and living in peace and was happy that the land of the even farthest north would once more be cared for and love.  For that was God's way.

Kirstie and the Lost Stone
During the autumn clean up of the even farthest north, Kirstie discovers that a stone on her beach is missing.  Worried, she goes to Colin, her neighbour, for help.  He dismisses her fears, telling her that the stone is both small and unimportant, but Kirstie remains concerned and sets out to look for it.  She finds herself at the haunted Bay of Sand at the End of the World, but still cannot find her lost stone.  She realises that she herself is now lost and asks God for help.

Safe in his postbox home, Colin cannot sleep for worrying about Kirstie and sets off in search of her.  He finds her just as she finds her lost stone and together they put it back on her beach.

And God smiled to see them both safe, for nothing is too small or unimportant for God, and his way is to see the lost brought safely home.

Andrew and the Fish that got Away
Andrew was known as the most selfish McDorwuff in the whole of the even farthest north.  The despair of his wife, Morag, he will only help others provided it does not get in the way of his great passion, fishing.  One spring morning, ignoring Morag's complaints about the state of their postbox home and ignoring cries for help from his friends, he goes down to the beach to put the finishing touches to his boat and fishing tackle.

Morag meanwhile takes her problems to God.

Andrew proudly leads the other fishermen out into the loch and soon catches a large fish in his net.  But a mist comes down, and the fish begins to behave in a strange way, pulling the boat deeper into the mist before disappearing through a hole in the net. Then the boat begin sto fill with water and Andrew, fearing he will drown, calls on God for help before slipping and knocking himself out against the side of the boat.

He wakes to find himself being tended by Morag.  He has been rescued by his friends, the ones he had spurned earlier.  He feels ashamed and promises not to be so selfish in future.

And this promise Andrew did keep.  So God smiled as he let the great fish swim joyfully out into the wide, wide ocean.  It had served its purpose.  And that was God's way.

Hamish the Head of the Clan
Hamish is a good and popular rockherd.  Always willing to help others he is the natural choice for Head of the Clan.  If a problem is too difficult for him to solve, he climbs to the top of the mountain to discuss it with God - for at that time the McDorwuffs believethat God lives at the top of the mountain.

But after a time, Hamish grows tired of the trek up the mountain.  He feels that he can sort things out as well as God.  So he stops speaking to God.  Gradually he sets himself up as a rival, issuing a decree that no McDorwuff can approach God directly, only through him.   McDorwuffs flock to him with their troubles and Hamish eventually has to move to a new, beautiful house half-way up the mountain.  Beseiged by McDorwuffs wanting to see him, Hamish states that he can only be communicated with by letter.

A group of McDorwuffs are unhappy with this situation.  Discovering that they can talk to God at any time and in any place, letters to Hamish cease.  Alone and lonely, Hamish soon begins to miss his past life and his old friends.  He has no-one to talk to - other than God.  At last Hamish begins talking to God.  Ashamed of his behaviour he leaves his new home and apologises to the McDorwuffs.

And God looked down on the large feast the McDorwuffs were preparing and saw Hamish talking to the old McDorwuffs and laughing with the young, and God was pleased.  For it is God's way that people should live together in happiness under him.