October 20 – “Raw eggs and black dots”

 

 

I did a series of three object lessons at Seaside Christian Academy this week for their Bible class/chapel.  I was filling in for the guy who usually does it so he could go to the Bastrop area and help cut down trees that were burned in the fire a few weeks ago.  Actually the third one is this morning just before the kids go on a big field trip.  The local Methodist church has a pumpkin patch set up, and then they are going out to eat Mexican food at Salsa's. 

 

For the first lesson I asked them what art was.  They pretty much got that one right on.  They listed things like drawing and painting and sculpture.  Even the kindergarten guy got in the act with a shy, "coloring."  Then I unrolled a strip of butcher paper on which I had markered in one small black dot.  I asked what they saw, and of course they all said, "a black dot," like I was an idiot or at best blind.  I then asked how come they didn't say that they saw a huge piece of white paper.  Stumped them on that one.  The point was that sin sticks out, no matter how many good things you try to do.  I was then going to quote Romans 3:23, but before I could get it out the entire group quoted it for me.  One of the things they have been doing is memorizing scripture verses, and that happened to be their first one. 

 

Yesterday's object was an egg.  Actually it was two of them.  One was hard-boiled and the other was raw.  I told them my wife had cooked it for me, but I didn't know which was which.  I asked them to choose the one they thought was cooked, so I could crack it and eat it.  The thing was, I intended to crack it on my head, so they needed to be careful in their choice.  As luck would have it, they chose the hard-boiled one.  But then they said both eggs were probably hard-boiled.  A challenge.  They didn't think I would crack the second one on my head.  But I did.  Quite the mess.  To a chorus of screams and laughter, I wiped my face – and my chair - and the floor - with a towel.  The object lesson?  I didn't know what was inside the eggs, but God knows what we are like on the inside.  He knows we sin, but he loves us anyway.  So much that he provided a way to take care of our problem with sin.  He became a man, lived a perfect life, died, and rose from the dead.  So what are we supposed to do about that?  That's today's lesson.  Something to do with a flashlilght.

 

Proverbs 29:11 says, "A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control."

 

Father, keep drawing those little guys toward yourself.  Amen.