Here is another post by my wife whose passion is worship that involves all ages – especially children
Why is it that preachers look elsewhere when they speak with children about the things of God? Elsewhere than the Word of God?
They spend a great deal of time conjuring “likes” out of their box of tricks. The church is like…. being a Christian is like…. forgiveness is like….
And there are a lots of objects in their magician’s kit as well. Namely objects for object lessons. Unfortunately this sleight of hand only confuses the children who are before them.
Today we had a real magic trick performed for the kids. Three pieces of string of varying lengths were produced for the audience of a dozen preschoolers up to first graders. We heard about the tall people (longest string), the middle sized people (medium string), and … “babies” one child suggested for the shortest string, and we all laughed. More examples of varying things were suggested by the pastor, before he brought all six string ends together in one hand and said “watch this”. (I thought the correct word was abracadabra.)
Sure enough, he turned them into three pieces of equal length. Amazing!
Photo: Courtesy Domino the Jester
Then he did another trick.
He turned the trick into an object lesson.
“We all look different, but Jesus has made us all the same.”
Maybe I think too deeply, or too literally about these things. I suspect some children do too. Perhaps they’re thinking, “I don’t want Jesus to make me look like my brother. I don’t want my Mum and Dad or my baby sister to all be ‘middle sized'”. And that’s if they’ve managed to draw the connection between the strings and ‘us’.
Whichever way you choose to tackle this concept of Colossians 3:11, one thing’s for certain. Little children aged less than eight years old will probably not understand the abstractness of it.
This is when parents need to grow these concepts into their children as they walk along the road together, when they lie down and get up, when they eat and play together. This will be when the abstract becomes concrete for them.
And the pastors who are sitting with the church’s little ones at their feet?
Perhaps they should tell a story. A Bible story.
Travels from Ur 