Children’s Story for October 3rd, 2004

By Barrette Plett, Bethel Mennonite Church, Winnipeg, MB

Bible Passages

Lamentations 1:1-6
Lamentations 3:19-26 or Psalm 137
2 Timothy 1:1-14 - Timothy's faith passed down through generations
Luke 17:5-10 - faith as small as a mustard seed

Theme/Scripture Connections

This week's lectionary texts all deal with faith.

The passages from Lamentations and Psalm 137 deal with exile and the importance of remaining faithful to God, even in times where you have been taken out of God's presence.
The New Testament passages are exhortations to be faithful and promises that faith will be rewarded. The promise of the Messiah was the salvation of the Lord that Jeremiah, the author of Lamentations, quietly awaited.

The boy in this children's story quietly waits for God's miracle to occur, even through the trials of impatience and winter.

Supplies Needed

acorn or other seed and picture of a tall tree (a large branch or limb would be better)
tall adult from the congregation and the adult's baby picture

Object Lesson

Show the baby picture and ask if the children know who it is a picture of. Let them make a few guesses. Then, ask the adult to come up. Explain that this is his/her baby picture. Ask them what is different about the person now. Ask them how long it takes for a person to go from a baby to an adult. Explain that we need to be patient and trust that God will help us to grow up to be grown-ups and that someday they might be the adults helping in Children's time in their church! Show the children the acorn and the branch and explain that you have a story about a small acorn. Ask them if they think they know what might happen in the story.

Story: Waiting Faithfully

A long time ago, there was a Sunday School class. Every week, the teacher asked the kids in the class to bring something special along to church. One Sunday in spring, the teacher asked every kid in the class to bring a seed that they would plant. The teacher said that they would plant the seeds and watch them grow. The next week, every kid brought a seed. Most of them brought vegetable seeds, but one boy, Josh, brought an acorn. They all planted the seeds in the ground behind the church. Every Sunday, they would go and water their little garden. Before they left, they prayed and thanked God for helping their seeds to grow.

After the first week, 2 little plants had started growing. They were peas. The next week, all the other seeds, except Joshua's, had started to grow. Their were pea plants, cucumbers and even broccoli. All the kids were really excited about the broccoli. As summer got closer, the plants started to get bigger. Some of them even had blossoms. Only Joshua's plant had not sprouted. Some of the other kids thought that his acorn probably wouldn't grow, and they told Joshua to plant something else like radishes. But Joshua said, “No, God will help this seed to grow, too.” When Sunday School ended for summer, Joshua offered to take care of their garden during July and August. Every week, Joshua went to the little garden. He carefully pulled all the weeds and watched closely for any sign of his acorn sprouting. But, when fall came, and Sunday School started up again, the class harvested all the vegetables from their garden, but Joshua's seed still hadn't grown.

One Sunday morning, the next spring, Joshua walked by the garden on his way to church. Then, he noticed something. He stopped and looked. Right in the spot where he had planted his acorn last year, there was a little green shoot coming out of the ground. Joshua ran proudly to his Sunday School teacher and said, “See! Look! I knew God would make my seed grow, too!” Every Sunday for the rest of the spring and summer, Joshua patiently watered his little tree. By the time fall came, it was almost up to his knee. He piled some leaves up around it to keep it warm in the winter and the next spring, he watched as its leaves turned green and it kept growing, slowly, but a little more every year.

This happened for many years, until Joshua was almost too old for Sunday school. But every summer, Joshua would take care of his tree, which was now taller than he was! God kept helping that tree to grow for many, many years, and eventually, kids would climb the tree or collect its acorns or sit in its shade after church. Joshua's little acorn had turned into a strong, tall tree!

Questions

Do you think this could be a true story?
Do you think that Joshua ever thought his acorn wouldn't grow?
Why do you think Joshua kept taking care of his acorn?
What are some things that you have to wait for?
If you pray to God, does God always answer right away?
Should we give up if God doesn't seem to answer right away?
Why do you think sometimes it takes a long time for God to answer our prayers?

Teaching

In the Bible, there are many stories of people waiting a long time for God to help them. Many times, the people wait patiently. The word for this is faith. Faith is waiting for God and knowing that God will answer, even if it's a long wait.

Prayer

Dear God. Please help us to have faith that you can help us, even if it feels like we have to wait a really long time. And please help us to keep growing up and having faith in you so that someday we can be grown-up helpers in church.

Variations

Depending on the service's focus, this story can highlight several topics:
1. waiting – the Bible passages admonish us to wait faithfully
2. faith – faith is trusting in something even if you can't see it
3. big things can come from small things – a mustard seed is pretty small, but that's all the faith we need to have.
For the object lesson above, another option would be to bring some vegetables from your garden (or some other congregant's) and talk about how you had to wait faithfully all summer for the garden to make vegetables from tiny seeds.