Faith Development

Teaching Bible…it’s an art form.

So much can go wrong.

Me, holding up the Bible picture card: “Peter’s friends prayed and God heard their prayers. Peter was asleep in prison when an angel came to him. The chains fell from Peter’s feet. The angel led him out of that prison. The guards who were in the prison didn’t even see him leave. The whole time, Peter thought he might be dreaming, but then, when he was out in the street, the angel disappeared. Peter was free! That’s when he knew he wasn’t dreaming…”

Hand shoots up: “I did not know that angels were blue. Blue is my favorite color.”

Me, considering the blue angel in the picture I am holding in my hand: “Well, no one but Peter saw this angel. This picture is just what one person thinks the angel might have looked like. We don’t really know what that angel looked like, since we didn’t see him.”

Everyone, not raising their hands: “I know what he looked like.” “Angels are BLUE!” “I have blue on my shirt.”

Me: “OK, guys, let’s pause for a minute and pray.”

So sometimes the kids derail things, but sometimes, it’s my fault when things go off track. One day last fall, I was teaching the Old Testament story of Joseph, so I wanted the kids to see on the map where Egypt was. I was trying to keep telling the story while at the same time finding Egypt on the map. I began to realize that my eyes and my glasses were not matching up to properly focus on my wall map. I could not, for the life of me, read those little words or find Egypt. The more I looked, the more frustrated I became. In all honesty, I’m not even sure I was looking in the right part of the world by that point. Like I said, though, I kept talking. BIG MISTAKE! All of a sudden, I heard myself saying, “…and Joseph was going to Egypt and he was SO excited….” Yes, I really did say that. Yes, my dear assistant Marti really did start laughing so hard she could barely breathe. Yes, I immediately backtracked and said Joseph was anything but excited, as he was TAKEN INTO SLAVERY! Oh my dear goodness. That one really set me back. I can laugh now, but for a day or two it was simply humiliating.

Things can definitely go south very quickly.

On the other hand, so much can go right.

As we approached Easter, I had the privilege of teaching that story over the span of about three weeks. It was nice to take my time unwrapping the fabulous message of Jesus’ death and resurrection.  As I began, I told the kids that I was very excited, because I was going to share my favorite story in the Bible.  They told me, “Easter is the best story in the Bible!” “It’s the best story in the whole world!” and I agreed. The week after Easter, we talked about Heaven. As I descried its beauty, one student raised his hand and told me, “I bet my Papi is walking on those golden streets right now!” And then when another student talked about their grandma who had died, the same student told his friend that Grandma was probably walking on golden streets RIGHT NOW. The friend paused for a moment, and then said, “I don’t know if they are walking on golden streets right now. They might just be sitting and talking to Jesus.” I absolutely love moments like this, when I can see that my students understand my Bible lessons so well that they could teach those lessons themselves.  (Let’s not talk about the time a few years ago when one student was so intent on bringing up Hell as I taught Heaven that we had a parent call and ask just exactly WHAT we were teaching at this preschool….)

Teaching preschoolers is my privilege and my joy, and teaching them about faith in God is a serious, delightful journey filled with moments that I treasure.  I’m going to leave you with a couple of quotes from a few years back, when I was teaching about Heaven.  

First of all, I think you should know that, "There are no pirates in heaven." (That one sounds like the title of a book to me.)

What will happen in heaven? "I will sit on Jesus' lap and tickle him." Sounds perfect to me!

(And Lord? Help me to get it right more often than I get it wrong.)