Kids Church

 Yesterday I found myself helping out in Kids Church for the first time in many many years. 


I should no longer be surprised at how God puts things together, but I still am, every time.   The church uses a kids resource called GROW.   Its an American scheme with video clips and activities and discussion points etc and by and large its really good .  Yesterday's lesson for the kids was about resisting temptation.  The Bible story was about Jesus being tempted by the devil in the wilderness and the point being made was that the Word of God is powerful to help us resist temptation and defeat the enemy.   There was a memory verse and my job was to help the kids remember it.  The verse was 2Thess 3;3  But the Lord is faithful and He will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.  The kids programme for church this week was probably written years ago, it was definitely written long before any notion of global conflict was on anybody's radar.  

As we were talking about the verse and committing it to memory I suggested we us it to pray for the Ukraine.  The kids ( aged between about 6 and 13) were all well aware of what is going on there.   They had all been involved in donating things to various appeals and understood the need to pray.  I found myself telling them that some of the boys and girls in Ukraine found themselves in a wilderness like Jesus had been in.  They had no food or water, no shelter and they were on their own with no apparent help.  They were scared and didnt know how long this time was going to last.  As we prayed for Mariopol and Kiev and Odessa we asked that the faithful Lord of the wilderness would strengthen the people of Ukraine and protect them from the evil one.  It was such a perfect verse and a perfect Bible story to give confidence and hope to the kids.  Not, Im sure, what the writers of the programme intended - but that's just typical of God isnt it?  His word is living and active.  It doesn't sit still on the page, cold and inert.  It is pulsating and wriggly and bursting with energy just longing to be released into any and every situation to achieve its end.  What is more, the fact that our kids were able to use this verse to pray into the very real situation in the news today will help them remember the scripture.  They can see it is relevant and real.  Its not just an instruction written to a church 2000 years ago, it is truth which is needed for today.  


This encouraged me.  I still need to be reminded very regularly that God is real, involved, powerful, relevant, able, accessible and good.  When I forget these things or they grow a bit dim and dusty a great place to have perspective refreshed is in the company of children.  Jesus loves kids  He always shows up for them in brilliant ways.  If you haven't done a stint in kids church for a while, you probably should.

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