Rebecca S. Ramsey's Blog, page 8

Knowing Jesus in a New Way 1: Known in Absence

Welcome to Knowing Jesus in a New Way 1: Known in Absence, our lesson for April 11, though we won’t be meeting, of course. I’m putting this out during our global pandemic just in case it can help someone who might be using these stories at home or by Zoom. 

This week’s story always gives me goosebumps-especially the moment when Jesus calls Mary’s name and she recognizes him. It’s hard to think of a story that would be more full of suspense and fear and joy, and the script for this Godly Play lesson does such a great job of sharing all of that with the children. I’m so glad that we don’t have to cram all of the after-Easter stories into Easter Sunday! It’s a luxury to be able to enjoy them and study them over several weeks.

The script is shared in the book that comes in the basket with your story tiles. This series is told much like the Easter series, with each lesson shared in a weekly tile, presented in sequence. The book suggests that after the story is shared, that you give the children time to find something among your Godly Play materials that helps further tell/illustrate the story. I hope that if you have the materials out in your room that you’ll do that. I’ll also include wondering questions for you for each week.

Here are the wondering questions for this week. Thank you so much for taking time to jot down responses so that we can share them with the parents.They have shared that they find it meaningful and enjoy feeling connected to what happens in class.

Wondering Questions:
1. I wonder what your favorite part of today’s story is.
2. I wonder what the most important part of today’s story is.
3. I wonder if there are any parts of the story we could take away and still have everything we need.
4. I wonder if there are ways we can learn about Jesus even though  he’s not here with us. I wonder what those ways might be.
5. I wonder what God is trying to teach us with this story about loving Jesus even when we’re not with him.

Gift to God Response Time Ideas:
There are a couple different ways children can respond to the story: either by (1)retelling it through art with the ideas below, or (2) by exploring ways in which they can know Jesus in his physical absence.
(1) Retelling the story of the empty tomb through art.

Children may want to brainstorm how they might represent the empty tomb story with their own ideas. Could they make a cave with clay, and add some strips of linen to the inside, with a large stone rolled away? Could they build the tomb with Lego or Lincoln Logs (feel free to help yourselves to the materials in the game room.) Or make it out of paper plates?

Could they make the people in the story: the three Marys, Peter and John, Jesus as the gardener?  Could they act out the story for the class using the materials they made? If they choose to do this, please do take photos!

Or maybe they’d like to paint the story or draw it. You could also make the cave as shown here orhere  
or here.  
Or if you’re in the mood to cook, why make Resurrection Rolls? They turn out sort of like popovers-hollow in the middle like a cave. The recipe is here. You can use the oven in the parlor or make them ahead at home.

2) Exploring ways in which they can know Jesus in his physical absence

Hopefully the children will share ideas during the wondering questions of how they can know Jesus even though he’s not physically with us. They could work together to illustrate a mural / list of these ways, including reading the Bible stories about Jesus, (ask the children to look through the Gospels and pick out their favorite ones and illustrate those,) listening to teachers and preaching about Jesus, praying, looking at artwork that artists have done about Jesus and his life, studying the Jewish faith that Jesus came from, learning about Jesus from the ways other Christians treat people. (This is a tricky one, isn’t it?)
I’m sure the children will think of even more ideas of ways to learn about Jesus.

Children could also explore how they “see” Jesus in other people. How can we act to make sure people see Jesus in us? This could be a great subject for a mural or class project.

I hope these ideas help!
Love, Becky

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Faces of Easter 7: Celebrating the Risen Christ

Welcome to Faces of Easter VII: Celebrating the Risen Christ, our lesson for Easter Sunday, April 4.

What a beautiful and important lesson we have this Sunday: the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.

I love how Godly Play presents this lesson, reminding children that the crucifixion side of the story cannot be pulled apart from the resurrection part, and that which looks like an ending is actually a beautiful beginning.

There are wondering questions at the end of the lesson with the script. I’ll have those in your room as well.

Don’t forget to allow time for your children to celebrate the resurrection by visiting the cross on the courtyard outside the sanctuary, where each child will have an opportunity to add a flower or two to the cross. Maybe the younger children can go at the beginning of Sunday school, and y’all can stagger your visits so everyone has time to enjoy the cross. If you like, you could even take the kids to the labyrinth, with instructions for them to pray their own Easter prayer as they walk it. If the kids have plenty of direction as to what they’re supposed to do (and if the weather is good) it might be a meaningful part of the morning!

We will have snacks in the game room before Sunday school, but you might want to share a special Easter snack with your kids (Hot cross buns or something Easter-y.) Just give me a clean receipt and I can make sure you’re reimbursed. Easter is definitely something that deserves a party!

The children may have their own ideas about how they’d like to explore the story and celebrate it through art. It would be wonderful if they wanted to work together as a class to make a gift to God. Maybe a mural of the stone rolled away, or of the two sides of this week’s story tile?

For more art response ideas, see my Pinterest page, here.

Thanks y’all! Happy Easter!
Much love, Becky

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Palm Sunday, the Beginning of a Story Week

This children’s sermon was given virtually on Palm Sunday, 2021.

Good morning girls and boys! I’m so glad you’re with us today. Happy Palm Sunday! Did you wave your palms yet this morning? It’s not too late. They can be real palms or ones you’ve made or some other branches from your yard. We wave palms to help us remember today’s story, story of a parade. A parade that started Holy Week. Do you remember the story?

Jesus and his friends get near Jerusalem and he sends two of them to the next village. He says that as soon as they get there they’ll find a colt tied there that hasn’t been ridden. Untie it and bring it to him. If anybody asks why, say The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately. So they did that. They brought it to him, threw their cloaks on it and he sat on it and they entered Jerusalem. As he rode in, what did people do? They spread their cloaks on the road and palm branches and shouted, Hosanna,  Hosanna is like “Yay you!” “We love you! We adore you!” Jesus went into the temple and then he went out and back to Bethany with his friends.

Today is the beginning of Holy Week. Holy Week is a story week. Something happens in the story every day.  The week starts out happy, with a fun parade. He was like a king! (Show crown) They were treating him like royalty, making a carpet for him to ride on. But as the week went on, did it stay that way?” No.

It’s hard to read the rest of the story. Some of the chapters are really sad and some are scary. Jesus knows and tells his friends that bad things are about to happen to him. He will be handed over to soldiers and they will hurt him and he will die on a cross. He will not wear a king’s crown but a crown of thorns like this one. But is that the end of the story? No. I promise, it has a really really happy ending. Next Sunday, Easter morning we get to hear it!

I don’t like scary stories. So do you know what I do to help myself, when I hear the scary parts I whisper into my hands a secret Alleluiah! There’s a tradition that we don’t say Alleluiah aloud during Lent. But next Sunday on Easter, we will! We won’t be able to help it! On account of the happy ending! It’s the best news. But for now, we can celebrate the first part of the story, and walk with Jesus through the hard parts. Just like Jesus walks with us through our hard parts.

Let’s pray: Dear God, thank you for your son Jesus and the love and strength he showed when times were easy and when they were really hard. We love you God. Amen.

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Making the Impossible Possible

This children’s sermon was given virtually for Annunciation Sunday, March 21, 2021.

Good morning, girls and boys. I’m so glad you’re with us today. Did you notice that we sang a Christmas-y song today? Today is Annunciation Sunday, the day we remember when the angel visited Mary and told her that she was going to have a baby, the son of God. When she asked how, the angel told her: Nothing is impossible with God. That’s something that’s fun to think about, how God can make things that seem impossible, be possible.

I learned about something this week that seems impossible. We know that plants need sunlight, that flowers bloom in the day when the sun shines. But look at this. It’s a moonflower and it blooms in the nighttime! In the day it’s all closed up, but when the sun goes down, it opens up. I love that God created things like that- making what seems impossible possible!  I bet you can think of other plants and animals that seem impossible, but are possible!

I’ve been thinking about something more serious that seems impossible too. What about those people who do really bad things that hurt other people. How is it possible that God loves them too? That seems impossible. But then I remember that I’m not always good either. I’m glad God loves me through the bad that I might think or do. I’m glad that God makes loving possible when it seems impossible.

In life we have so many things that seem impossible. What seems impossible for you these days? For summer to ever get here? For Covid to ever be over? We all look forward to that.

When I was your age, being an adult seemed impossible. How would I know what to do? How would I decide what I would be? But I kept doing different things, finding out what I liked and didn’t like, and I found out I don’t have to have everything figured out. I just have to be myself, ask God to help me and the people around me. And it became possible. I’m so glad that God will be close to us and help us see what is possible!

Let’s pray: Dear God, thank you for loving us so so much, and for making impossible things possible. We love you God. Amen.

 

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Faces of Easter 6: Remembering Jesus At the Last Supper

Welcome to Faces of Easter 6: Remembering Jesus At the Last Supper. You can also choose to do the same basic lesson but told in a different way,The Synagogue and the Upper Room (Lesson 11 in the yellow book.) Or you can combine the two lessons as you like. I bet the children would really enjoy seeing how the synagogue and the upper room physically unite together to become the church!

What a whirlwind of a story this week’s lesson is! So much happens, and all of it so very important: Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey, greeted with palms waving, Jesus teaching in the temple and sharing the parable of the widow’s offering, the temple guards’ plan to take him on Thursday, the last supper in the upper room, Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, Judas’ kiss of betrayal and Jesus’ arrest. What an honor, to be able to share this with the children and help them process it.

This is a perfect week to let the children respond to the story by gathering things from the Godly Play materials in the room that they feel help tell the story. I hope you’ll be able to jot these down for me, along with their thinking on this, so that I can share it with the parents. I’ll also have the following wondering questions for you in case that works better for your class, or if you have time to do both:

Wondering Questions:

1. I wonder what part of the story is your favorite.

2. I wonder what part of the story is the most important.

3. I wonder what special message God has for you in this story

I wonder where you are in this story. I wonder what part of this story is about you.

Give A Gift To God Time
Here are some ideas to add to your own:
1. Retell the story in sections. The story can be divided into scenes, with children working on different ones in pairs or individually. These can be hung together in your classroom if you like. Scenes would include the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, Jesus teaching in the temple, an illustration of the parable of the widow’s offering, the Last Supper, Jesus praying in the garden, Jesus’ arrest.

2. Act out the last supper.

3. Make more ornaments for your Jesus (Easter) tree. Children could make donkeys or palm branches, representations of the widow’s offering, bread or chalices of wine, praying hands or a praying Jesus, or bags of money, representing the 30 pieces of silver Judas was paid to betray Jesus.

4. Palm art. Here are directions for palm crosses for older children. You can use green ribbon too.

5. See more ideas of Palm Sunday crafts here.

If you’re on Pinterest, find my Last Supper page here for more ideas.

Enjoy! I hope you have a very meaningful Sunday!

Love, Becky

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Faces of Easter 5: Remembering Jesus Healing and Sharing Parables

Welcome to Faces of Easter 5: Remembering Jesus Healing and Sharing Parables, our lesson for March 21, though we won’t be meeting, of course. I’m putting this out during our global pandemic just in case it can help someone who might be using these stories at home or on the internet. 

 As we get ready for Easter this week, we remember the work Jesus did as he traveled around, healing people and sharing parables. It’s a great chance to make clear to our children that being with people of all kinds, loving them, healing them of their physical and emotional wounds, and sharing truth through stories was the work that God sent Jesus to do–and still sends Jesus to do today. I look forward to hearing from the children ways that they can be like Jesus: how they can show their love for others, heal people who are hurting, and share God’s truth with others.

You may want to share more detail in this week’s lesson than what is written in the script. Because we are retelling all the parts of the Jesus story, sharing every tile that we’ve shared so far during Lent, the writer keeps the script very brief. As for me, I’d rather give very short summaries of the tiles shared in the previous weeks and spend a bigger chunk of time in the circle sharing the healing story and an example of a parable.

I’ve fleshed out the script for this purpose with a more detailed telling of Jesus healing the blind man and Jesus telling the Parable of the Friend at Night and will send you my version by email this week. Feel free to use it if you like.

If you haven’t yet given each child an opportunity at the end of the circle time to gather something from the Godly Play materials that is related to this week’s story and to share the relation that he/she sees, this week is the perfect opportunity to try it. Even if you also use the wondering questions, it could be an interesting and valuable part of the lesson. If you do, try to have an adult jot down their thoughts and ideas so that we can share them in the newsletter.

Since there are no wondering questions listed with the script, I’ll have the ones below ready in your rooms. Thanks so much for taking time to document their responses. Having a peek into their thoughts and ideas is such a gift to the parents–and to the rest of us!

Wondering Questions:
1. I wonder what was your favorite part of today’s story.
2. In the healing part of our story, wonder how the blind man felt and what he thought when Jesus first took him by the hand.
3. Jesus put his spit on the man’s eyes, and the man could see, but not well. Then Jesus put his hands on his eyes again and his sight was perfect. I wonder why it took Jesus two times.
I wonder what this might teach us about helping people.
4. We can’t heal people’s eyes by touching them, but I wonder how we can help people with their hurt bodies and hurt feelings.
5. We shared the story Jesus told called the Parable of the Friend at Night. In that story, I wonder who the friend is who has gone to bed.
I wonder who you are in the story.
I wonder what Jesus wanted us to know about praying.
6. We talked about the fact that Jesus’ work was to come close to people, especially the people no one else wanted to come close to. If Jesus came to do this today, I wonder what kind of people Jesus would want to spend time with.

Gift to God Time
There are many different directions the children can go in responding to this week’s time together. They could focus on retelling the healing story or the parable or both. Or they could extend this lesson by focusing on how we as Christians can participate in the healing of others and in telling truth and sharing God’s message.
Retelling today’s story:
1. Children could make 2 dimensional or 3 dimensional representations of the healing story or the parable story through drawing or painting it, making a mural, creating the scene in a diorama, making clay figures to act out the story, etc.

2. Children could work in a group or individually collecting healing stories of Jesus or parables Jesus told. How long a list could they make? Could you work together, giving groups of kids different gospels to scan, making a list on a piece of butcher paper? Maybe they could illustrate the list with a simple drawing beside each title. The Bibles in our Sunday school rooms have headings of each parable and healing story, making them easy to find. Do all the gospels tell the same stories? This would be good to investigate.

3. Children could be given the option of examining other parable stories in the parable boxes and retelling them to a partner. They might have to look these up in the Bible to make sure they remember the stories. We’d just need to be sure that they’re careful to keep all the materials together and separate from each other.

4. The children could even make a mini-booklet of parables, with one on each page and a simple illustration.

5. Children could make ornaments for our Jesus tree from the different healing and parable stories. How about a set of eyes for this week? Or a door from the parable? Or items from other parables and healing stories. There are some interesting ones here.

How we can help heal others:

 6. Children could make cards to help heal those who are sick or lonely. I’d be glad to pass these on to the ministers when they visit. When we’ve done this before we’ve had a great response. Cards really do make a difference!

If you like Pinterest, see here for more ideas the children could use as springboards. (Rather than copying them exactly, they could use them as inspiration!)

Enjoy!

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Faces of Easter 4: Remembering Christ’s Desert Experience

Welcome to Faces of Easter 4: Remembering Christ’s Desert Experience, our lesson for March 14, 2021. This year we’ll be sharing the story virtually.

 As we get ready for Easter this week, we remember Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, described in Matthew 4: 1-11. It’s good to remember that this event happened right after Jesus’ baptism, before he could begin his work. Or maybe being tempted–and letting us see that even he was tempted–was part of his work!

As we all know (and have lived) children have plenty of experience with temptation. Thankfully they have this sacred story to refer to, both now and as they get older. Temptation never goes away in life, so it’s a great lesson for all of us.

Since there are no wondering questions listed with the script, I’ll have these ready in your rooms. Thanks so much for taking time to document their responses. Having a peek into their thoughts and ideas is such a gift to the parents–and to the rest of us!
Wondering Questions:

1. I wonder what is your favorite part of today’s story.2. I wonder what it felt like to be so hungry and to be reminded that if he wanted to, he could turn the stones into bread.3. Jesus responded, “To be a real human being, we need more than just bread to eat. I wonder what he meant. I wonder what he thought we needed.4. When Jesus found himself on top of the Temple, I wonder how it felt to imagine himself falling and having the angels save him. I wonder if people had seen him do that, what they might have thought about him.5. I wonder how it felt to be tempted to easily become the king of all the kingdoms.6. I wonder why Jesus needed to go through all of these temptations before he started working with people.Here’s an excellent video the kids might enjoy that tells the story.It’s at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-6a25Yo2wE

Now, some ideas to add to your own to serve as springboards for the children’s response time:

Focus on retelling the story itself:

1. Children could draw the three separate scenes. They could do this individually, on a large paper, folded in thirds. Or they could do this as a class, on a large mural on butcher paper. They could make captions, explaining each scene.

2. They could show the desert scene with sand art, using glue and colored sand, as shown here.

3. They could pick one scene to draw (or all three) and paint the drawing with watercolors.

Focus on the idea of temptation and how God can help us deal with it.

1. On one side of a drawing or collage of magazine pictures, children could illustrate the different temptations they face at school or at home or at church or sports. (Cheating, disobeying parents, being hurtful to others, eating things that aren’t good for them, etc).  On the other side they could show how they resist temptation by asking God for help. Or they could put on that side a verse of scripture or “What would Jesus do?”  Some scripture that might be appropriate might include:
James 1:12 Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord* has promised to those who love him.

Psalm 62:8 Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him.

Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,and do not rely on your own insight. 

Isaiah 12:2 Surely God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid, for theLord God * is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation.

2. Children could make a What Would Jesus Do bracelet (or a love bracelet) with letter beads and twine, tying knots between each bead to make them stay in place.

6. Children could make ornaments for the Jesus/Easter tree in their Sunday school room. For today’s lesson, this might include hot gluing stones to thread to hang, or ornaments of scripture from this lesson.

7. Children could make a banner from felt or fun foam on What Would Jesus Do?For more art response ideas, see my Pinterest page on the story, here.

Enjoy!

Love, Becky

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A God Who Plays!

This children’s sermon was given virtually March 7, to acccompany a sermon on the playful nature of God.

Good morning girls and boys. I’m glad you’re with us today!

Have you met the Dullards? I wanted to tell you a little about this book today. It’s called Meet the Dullards, and it’s by Sara Pennypacker. It’s a really fun story about a family – there’s Mr. and Mrs. Dullard, and children Blanda, Borely, & Little Dud.

Mr. and Mrs. Dullard have a problem. One day they find out that their children are not dull like they are! They want to play and have fun! They catch them reading books! So they take the books away and give them blank paper to read instead.

The kids go outside—but wild things are happening out there! Last fall the leaves turned color. And a terrible commotion was happening in the driveway! (It was a snail, crawling across it!)

They do all sorts of things to try to keep their kids dull—they move to a new house, they paint over all the exciting wall paper and spend the whole day watching the paint dry, but their kids always seem to find fun.

I think they might as well give up. Those kids and us too—we’re a reflection of who God who created us. We are made in God’s image! We couldn’t be dull if we tried, because we’re children of a God who likes to play!

We don’t always think of God as playing, but God plays! And I brought proof! Take a look at these pictures of things God created. God made things like llamas! And fish like this! And trees that sometimes put on a show with the colors they turn! Not too long we’ll see this here in Greenville, bushes and trees and flowers will bloom! And dogs!

I wonder if today, you could look for examples of how God plays.

You might just look in the mirror, because you are so fun and so funny! You always make me laugh. You are made in God’s image. God loves to play and create and be full of joy. And you do too! I’m so glad we’re like that- and not like Mr. and Mrs. Dullard.

Let’s have a prayer together: Dear God, thank you for making us people who play and like to laugh, because you play and laugh as you love us. We love you too God. Amen.

 

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Faces of Easter 3: Remembering Christ’s Baptism and Blessing

Welcome to Faces of Easter III: Remembering Christ’s Baptism and Blessing, our lesson for March 7, 2021. We’ll be sharing this virtually.

 As we get ready for Easter this week, we remember and celebrate Christ’s baptism and blessing from God. How good it is to remember that Jesus chose to be baptized before he started his work, to mark the beginning of his adult journey toward the cross by getting in line with us, teaching us what to do. It reminds us how meaningful it is to begin our own discipleship by leaning into the darkness of the water, letting God cleanse us, allowing our old selves to die and be buried, and then get up, dry off, and start life marked and blessed officially as God’s own.

There are so many ways we can go with this lesson. We must focus on the story itself, of course, but we can also give thought to examining the concept of the trinity, recognizing that this moment in Jesus’ life is a beautiful interaction of the father, son, and the holy spirit.

At the end of the storytelling time you could  ask the children to gather items to put by the baptism tile, or you could use wondering questions to help them process the story. Here are the ones I’ll have in your rooms:
1. I wonder what your favorite part of this story is.
2. I wonder what you already know about John the Baptist.
3. I wonder how John the Baptist might have felt when Jesus asked him to baptize him.
4. I wonder why Jesus wanted to be baptized, even though he was God’s son?
5. I wonder what people thought when they saw the holy spirit come down toward Jesus. I wonder what they thought when they heard God’s voice say, “This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.”
6. I wonder how it might feel to be baptized.
7. God and the holy spirit gave Jesus a blessing. I wonder what a blessing is. I wonder if you’ve ever been given a blessing and how that felt. I wonder if you’ve ever given anyone else a blessing.

Here are some ideas that might serve as springboards for the children’s own creations:

Retelling the story:
1.  Have a small Jesus figure, a small John figure, and a pool (a large bowl of water) and let the children take turns at one table retelling the story and acting it out with the figures.

2.  Let the children make their own Jesus and John figures (clothespins?) and their own pool (plastic bowls or recycled containers like Cool Whip size-there may be some in the resource room. If not, you could even use a Solo cup, cut shorter.)

3. I remember a teacher from my own childhood having us clean dirty pennies with water and vinegar, talking about how our sins are washed away in baptism. I’m not sure how I feel about this.  If I did that today I would want to add that even after our baptism is done, we still have to ask God daily to forgive us of the mistakes we make.

4. Make a snack to celebrate this special event in Jesus’ life, like our edible locust to the right.
You could make edible bugs to dip in honey as done here, or make trinity muffins as described here.

5. Make ornaments for your Jesus tree.
A. You could always make doves, as shown here or here (I know it’s an owl, but you could make it into a dove,)  or here (I love that one.) Or pick up some feathers at the craft store and let the kids think themselves how to make it from the feathers and other materials you have on hand.

B. Another ornament idea is to make a Chrismon-type ornament that celebrates his baptism in particular as shown here(scroll down and see the scallop one.) Or why not use real scallop shells from a craft store and make your own like the one in the link. The kids could hot glue a ribbon to it and figure out how to represent the three drops of water shown in the chrismon–or not! They could put a dove with the shell, or make it however they like!

 C. There’s a pretty one out of felt here. Kids could copy it or even better, design their own!
http://www.mssscrafts.com/newtestamen...

Examining the Concept of the Trinity.
Since we just enjoyed St. Patrick’s Day, it might be a good time to look at the 3 leaved shamrock as a symbol of the trinity. Here’s an ornament the kids could make out of fun foam here. And there are plenty of other ideas here. Be sure to scroll down to see all the examples.

For more ideas on art response to this story, visit my Pinterest page, here.

Enjoy!

Love, Becky

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Are There Questions We Shouldn’t Ask God?

This Children’s Sermon was given virtually Feb 21, 2021. The preaching pastor was preaching on Mark 8:27-33, when Jesus asks the disciples at Caesarea Philippi who do people say that he is.

Good morning girls and boys! I’m so glad you’re with us today.

I have a question for you- and it’s about asking questions. When we want to know about something, one of the best things we can do is ask questions. This is true about our faith too. It’s good to ask plenty of questions about God. Are there any questions we shouldn’t ask God? I hope you’ll be thinking about that.

There’s a book I like that you might know. It’s called Does God Know How to Tie Shoes, and in it, a girl named Katrina asks lots of questions.

Some of them are ones like:  Mama, how does God talk?  Mama, does God get cold and hungry? Does God ever cry, Papa? Does God go to sleep, Papa?  [Read responses to a few of the questions in the book]

In the book, the parents give Katrina answers. But sometimes questions are really hard, and adults might not know. Adults don’t know everything. The thing about God is that as much as we know and love God, God is a mystery. And some questions are really hard, like Why do bad things happen to people? Why is life unfair? Why doesn’t God stop people getting hurt?

Do you think it’s okay to ask questions like that?

I do. I think it’s okay to ask exactly those questions. Ask your parents, ask your friends. Ask the Bible- read and look for clues! Ask God. Those are deep mysteries, and they take lots of thinking. We might never know the answer to them.

But be sure to ask one other person. Ask yourself. We learn when we ask ourselves questions. When we ask ourselves and invite God to help us think about it, we get closer to God, even when the questions are hard we still don’t know the answer. Be sure to also share what you think about the questions you ask. You children have ideas that we can’t think of, because we’re not children anymore. Share your ideas. We need your ideas.

One thing we know for sure is that nothing we do or say or ask will stop God from loving us. Isn’t that a wonderful thing?

Let’s pray: Dear God, thank you for welcoming our questions. Help us keep asking you about yourself our whole lives long. We love you, God. Amen.

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