She was looking intently at the picture board that I had created while I told the story, and I could tell her little mind was trying to process something. Finally, she couldn't wait to ask and burst out, "But where is God?" It took me a couple of seconds to understand the question, and then I remembered that I had been telling stories of Jesus for weeks; and a picture of Jesus would inevitably appear on the board. The last couple Sundays, however, I have been telling the story of David the little shepherd boy and how he was raised by God to be the King of His Own Chosen People. No pictures of Jesus appeared in this story. At this juncture, I was telling about how King Saul had asked for David to come into his court to stay and to become his personal musician to calm him when the 'evil spirit' came upon him. In an earlier lesson, I had told the children how God moved on the heart of the judge Samuel to anoint David to be the next king, and now he was given the unpleasant job of calming a wild and dangerous king by playing his harp. To express it the way one of the girls recapped it this Sunday: "David played his harp when the king got really mad and went 'waaaa!!!!!....' "(arms flailing everywhere and head shaking violently until her hair stood up). Well, where was God? I stopped and pointed to the top of the board where the sky ends, and said, "God was there. He was up in heaven, and He was watching what was happening to David. He was training David to be a good king. David was watching Saul while he was doing his business, and David was trained to be a king in his time as a musician." I'm so glad she asked...I never thought of it that way before. It also gave me a chance to tell them (and myself) that God is always up in heaven watching what is happening to us, and He is planning for us a good future. Just for the record, I don't always see this; and I'm sure David did not always understand this when the situation became tense, but that does not change the truth of this fact. Ahh, the blessings of active little minds!
We are thankful for the Lord's protection on some of our church family who had come to Mitchell for business last week and had a frightening accident that landed them in the hospital. We were glad to be with them, and to help them when they needed help. Happily, we were able to take them home a few days later, though they were bruised and sore. God is good--all the time!!
My prayer for you is that you would have a wonderful week, and that you would see God in all things that come your way. God bless you!
