Christmas in July

The  road we were on was jagged and uphill, filled with obstacles we couldn’t see. In truth,  the biggest obstacles were us. The past several weeks had broken us and those around us into so many pieces that we forgot what the picture looked like on the cover of this puzzle box that we were trying to put back together. We forgot how big and powerful and all-knowing God is. We needed to see Him show up in helping us weekly. Together.

So we did something drastic. We threw away the Sunday School curriculum in the children’s ministry.

Our Bibles would be the curriculum. They would be open, present and necessary for the teachers and the students. We met weekly to pray, discuss, plead for insight into how to make the Bible relevant to children from five to fifth grade. In the same room. Together.

We all had loved Jesus for a long time and studied our Bibles regularly. Some had experience teaching children, others teaching adults. But this was going to be a new thing. We needed creativity to come up with activities to reinforce the main idea of the lesson. We needed creativity to develop a structure for the morning that would feel safe to the children but freedom to make every week different. Each week we would evaluate what had happened the week before to discuss what worked and what didn’t. No one could get comfortable always doing the same aspect of the morning’s plan. Everyone would be stretched and pulled out of their comfort zone.

No wonder so much of our meeting time was spent praying, often with tears! 

We needed God to show up with us first so we could truly minister to the children. Their needs and our needs were both so many, so great. As promised, He was there. We inched forward very slowly, never alone, together.

The church calendar was in Lent so we started with those events in the book of Mark. Each scene was taken separately and discussed, asking why this passage mattered to a child, and what was the lesson to focus on for their lives. An activity was planned to reinforce the main idea and everywhere the Bible as primary document was open.

It was a powerful time as we weekly saw God going before. Eventually laughter and wonderment were part of the weekly planning gathering as we marveled at the changes in the children, at the changes in us.

Continuing forward in the scriptures, we eventually completed the book of Mark. The book of Luke is next in the Gospels which is how we ended up talking about Christmas in the summer. What a gift it was to focus on the events leading up to the birth of Jesus without a full calendar of holiday events competing for our attention!

Knowing that the narratives happened to real people like us, we imagined what it must have been like to be them. We were learning so much as we focused on one event at a time. Our enthusiasm was contagious and the children seemed to flourish in the new format, enjoying that every week was different within a repeated structure.

Early into the book of Luke we came to a roadblock of sorts. Elizabeth’s astonishing surprise of being pregnant as a very old lady was something we weren’t sure how to convey to the children. “We could tell them it was like their grandparents suddenly expecting a new baby.” “That won’t work. They’re kids, they think everyone is old!”

Debate and discussion could not bring about a resolution and the meeting was almost over. ‘I’ll take it on,” volunteered one of the teachers. No idea how she would do it, we knew that she would.

The morning began with an opening activity, then the Bible lesson after one of the children read the passage from the scriptures. A simple snack was served then the children were gathered in a semi-circle for a special surprise. Their teacher had written a children’s story just for them! 

A masterful storyteller, she had the children’s rapt attention about a happy bird family. The clutch of eggs produced several babies including one with the most unexpected characteristic - she had no wings! 

Loved and cared for by all her family, the story shared how they adapted and lived with her, adjusting to the complications of being a bird that couldn’t fly. Until one extraordinary day when suddenly she could fly, still without wings! Astonishing! Incredible! Supernatural! The children practically cheered.

From my vantage point off to the side, I got to watch the connection come across all their faces, like a wave sweeping the crowd at a sporting event. Elizabeth having a baby at a very old age was like a bird flying without wings! They got it. They understood the miracle of it. They understood that the God who did that was powerful and paying attention. He could do anything!

Thirty years later, the memories of that time are still a treasure to me. So much good came after we thought we would never recover from the individual and corporate wounding that happened to set us onto our recovery journey. But God. 

Near and dear, He helped us as we limped forward. After a couple years, we were able to fly again.

Please do yourself a favor and read, dwell, marvel over the Christmas story yourself sometime this summer. You will be very glad you did. 

Maybe you will find new ways and places to fly even if you already have wings!