Today’s author is Melanie Hill, Prince of Peace’s new interim director for Children & Family Ministry. Meet Melanie this Sunday, September 18 at 10:00am in the Reception Room.
Long ago…and far away…in a land of sand, rocks, and wind…there lived a woman named Sarah and her husband, Abraham….
This is how I begin telling my favorite story to kids —it’s the story that is our text for this Sunday. I spread a dark blue silky cloth to create a story area. I sprinkle sand and rock and place a couple of trees. I bring out Joseph and Mary from a children’s wooden nativity to serve as Abraham and Sarah. Then I place a tent.
Next come the sheep and cows (from the same nativity) and we talk about how Sarah & Abraham had flocks of animals, how they moved them around to find things for the animals to eat. We talk about camping and what it’s like to sleep under a dark sky. We wonder what it’d be like to sleep every night in a tent. We hang a moon in the sky.
I tell the kids that Sarah and Abraham were pretty happy—and prosperous, actually, what with all the flocks. I tell them that they’d been married a very long time. Maybe Abraham had a long white beard, I say. Maybe Sarah had a long white ponytail. They were grandparent age, only they weren’t grandparents. They weren’t parents. They had no children and this was the one thing that made their hearts sad.
What I want the kids to intuit (and they do!) is that Sarah and Abraham are not likely to become parents at this stage of their lives.
Because this is where the story begins, of course.
God had something special planned for Sarah and Abraham. God sent them from their home to a new land and said the new land would be theirs. God said Sarah and Abraham would have a huge family—they would become a nation that would bless all the families of the earth.
The only problem was…Sarah and Abraham didn’t have any kids!
One night, when Sarah was sleeping, Abraham asked God some questions. “How will we have a huge family when we don’t have even one child?” Abraham asked. “How can we bless all the families of the earth when we are just two old people?”
God said: Abraham, step outside, please. Look up at the sky….
I sprinkle star confetti across the blue storycloth.
“Can you count the stars?” God asked Abraham.
Here we try to count all the stars of the confetti, but there are too many, of course, and they’re all over the sky.
“This is how big your family will be!” said God. “As many as the stars in the sky….”
I tell the kids that Abraham believed God. Sometimes. Other times Abraham—and Sarah, too— tried to make these wonderful things God promised happen themselves. Which didn’t work. God had made the promise—and when God makes a promise, God makes it happen!
Tomorrow, we’ll talk about some of those stars….
Pastor Melanie