Monday, April 15, 2013

April 15 – “A day in the life”

Me and my assistant did a fine job of presenting a Kids’ Sermon yesterday.  Well, my assistant was by far the star of the show.  When I called the kids up, five of them were brave enough to join me at the podium.  Of course the first one there was Cailyn.  And of course she climbed right up onto my stool and made herself comfortable.  Kiara another four-year-old little girl, came and stood between Cailyn and me (a little rivalry there, I think), and three older guys came as well, but they made themselves comfortable on the front pew.  I asked Cailyn, “What do we do when you come over to my house to stay for the day?”  She initially reacted about like I expected.  A shy scrunching of the shoulders and a barely discernible, “I don’t know.”  So I determined to help her walk through it.

“What do we do when you first get there and you haven’t had breakfast?”
“We make pancakes.”
“And what color are those pancakes?”
“Pink.”

OK.  She was off and running now. 
“Do we sometimes take walks?”
“Yes.”
“And do we ever play over in 40 steps?”  (I had to explain that 40 Steps is Josiah’s name for the vacant lot next door).
“Yes.”

Not much extra information coming out of her mouth yet.  I decided to throw in a little test. 
“And after we play we go inside and take a nap, right?”

I figured that would get some kind of rise out of her.  She never wants to take a nap.  But what do I know?  She flashed her smile, cocked her head and just as sweetly as she could muster, she said, “Yes.”

Now wait a minute.  She must not have heard me.  I tried talking a little faster.
“And we sometimes we play in the back yard.  What do we do out there?”
“We plant stuff with Nani.”

OK.  More info, but suddenly I’m out of the picture altogether.  I tried,
“What else do you play with that is hanging up out there?”
“The swing.”
“Right.  And what does one of them look like?”
“A horsie.”
“Very good, and then we come inside and take a nap, right?”
“Yes.”

Aargh.  No nap in reality, but I think by now she had sensed the humor of the moment and was actively going there.
“Do we practice dancing because you said I could dance with you at your wedding?”
“Yes.”
“And then we take a nap?”
“Yes.”

Of course. 
“What do we do when we go out in the front yard?”
“We play ring-around-the-rosie.”
“Want to play it now?”

That got a rise out of everyone.  She climbed down from the stool.  Kiara was quick to grab a hand.  I asked the boys on the front row if they wanted to play, and they jumped right in.  And we did it.  Played a round of ring-around-the-rosie right there in the front of the church.  And when we got to the “all fall down” part, we all fell down right there.  Except for Cailyn.  She very calmly and sweetly to a seat on the front pew to wait for all the silliness to end.  Then she returned to her perch on the stool.  Breathlessly I asked,
“And then what do we do?”

And from the congregation came a chorus of, “Take a nap.”
And from Cailyn?  “Yes.”

I suppose the interchange made its point.  And not just about the need to take a nap.  The teaching was centered on the decision of two disciples in John’s chapter one to follow Jesus after having an opportunity to spend a day with him.  What did they do with him?  What did say?  What would you want to say or do if you got that chance?  Our kids’ prayer went like this: Jesus, help us learn how to spend time with you, even when we can’t see you.  Amen.

Oh, yes.  During our encouragement time that followed the kid’s sermon, someone asked me if Cailyn was going to preach today.  Puzzled, I turned around.  She was still sitting proudly on my stool.  So I asked her, “Are you going to preach today?”  She smiled broadly and replied, “Yes.”  Of course.  So I asked, “And what are you going to preach about to all these people?  What will you tell them?”  She pondered for a moment or two before brightening and shouting, “No roaches!”  Now there’s a great sermon title if I ever heard one.

John 1:37-39 says, “When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, ‘What do you want?’
They said, ‘Rabbi’ (which means Teacher), ‘where are you staying?’
'Come,’ he replied, ‘and you will see.’
So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour. “

Father, thank you for the offer to come and see what it is like to abide with you.  Amen.

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