Each time I
sit down to meditate on and prepare a children’s Sunday school lesson, I find
that I benefit more, personally, than I ever thought I would from the get go.
And sometimes it isn’t until I read a passage of Scripture out loud during
class that I even hear it, the something that I take away.
This was the
case as I prepared a few lessons for the summer program that is currently
underway at Covenant. I wanted to use a curriculum that would be meaningful and
relevant. I had already decided on a VBS program to stretch out over the summer
months….and so my options were limited to VBS curriculum. VBS programs are
typically outreach events, so the material is usually the “same old stories”. I
was hoping for something deeper than this “same old” that we hear all the time.
I kept looking. When I initially read over Gospel Light’s 2015 VBS overview, it
was a total salvation message, start to finish. I started thinking, “everyone
already knows all of that (or this)”. But the more I thought about it and
pondered the texts and ideas in this curriculum, the more I thought it would be
so appropriate to talk through the salvation message with the kids in Sunday
school as a good reminder of either where they are or where they might desire
to go, to lay it all out there in a way that perhaps they hadn’t quite thought
of before.
So I
purchased it and started reading over the materials and making lists: to do
lists, decoration lists, craft lists, volunteer lists, etc. Once I had all
these basics nailed down, I started to read for content. It was interesting.
Surely if it could catch my attention it would catch the elementary kid’s
attention.
I was
starting off as teacher the first two weeks so I paid particular attention to
that lesson, deciding what to use and when to teach what. After all, I had two
Sunday school classes to teach one night of VBS material. If you are familiar
with VBS at all, there is way more information than you can even fit into one
night. So I felt confident in being able to stretch it. The lessons lend
themselves to a teachable idea and then a review. So it seemed perfect. Week
one: lesson. Week two: review.
Like I said,
it was the salvation message so we were starting off with creation. Blah Blah.
Who doesn’t know that story? Even on the first Sunday to teach, I could see it
in their eyes, “We already know this story”. But do you? Do you really know it
all? Did I? I thought I did. I mean, I’ve read Genesis more times than I can
count on all my fingers and toes. Even my daughter recently asked me a question
born out of something she heard at school about the creation story,
particularly about the moon. We took a moment to open the bible and read it and
we answered the question plain as day from the text. It is important to do
that, go back and check, read it if you are wondering about something.
Back on
track though, as I prepared this lesson I read the words on the page, I read
the story, I practiced the ‘stunt’. I read the Bible. But you know, that
morning I was teaching, when I read the passage in the bible we all know,
something jumped out at me. Something I read often, but thought about in a new
way this time.
Genesis 1:26-27: Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image,
in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds
in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the
creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Mankind was not only created like
everything else, but made special in the image of God. We were made with the
likeness of God. Webster defines likeness as, a state of being alike,
resemblance. Like the other things God created, mankind had a material body,
but also, by design, carried a soul/spirit. This set us apart from the stars
and the fish, among other things. We have the ability to think about things,
make choices and talk to and love God. No other creature God created had this
ability. I used the word resemblance earlier in the definition. By using that
word I do not mean to convey that we look like God. God exists without a body,
so we cannot ‘look’ like or resemble Him in that way. We resemble God by being made with
perfect bodies and the ability to live with God forever.
We all know the rest of the
story. I’ll go into more detail on that in the next post, but one of the major
take-aways from studying this children’s lesson is the demonstration of love
that God gave in His creation. God created us out of love and for love. God
loves us and gave us the ability to love Him and others. Ultimately, God made
us to be close to Him, to know him and to dwell with him forever. And I am
forever thankful for the ways in which God set in place for us to be able to be
close to Him and the plan for us to dwell in His house forever.