Play! Listen! Talk!

Have you ever had something turn out completely different than what you expected? (A recipe? A trip to meet relatives you had never met before?) Sometimes the unexpected results are so much BETTER than you could ever have hoped for (that happened to me with the wonderful relatives we met for the first time). Sometimes the results are not so good (I’m hoping that’s NOT happening with the Santa Lucia buns rising in the kitchen right now.)

Today our Sunday School class turned out differently than I expected. I prepared lots of intriguing sensory items to help our preschoolers make a Bible story book. There was sandpaper for the manger, soft fabric for cloth to wrap baby Jesus in, craft sticks for the stable and, of course, cotton balls for sheep. (Really, do you think the inventors of cotton balls had any idea of how many sheep would be made in Sunday School from these little wispy puffs?) With all these delightful things to touch and feel, I assumed our conversation would be focused on the Bible story.

Unexpectedly, however, we ended up talking about a pirate ship toy that needed to stay in the cubbie like grandma had told her grandson, toys that could not be made into guns (not even bubble-gum guns as one little girl tried to do) and what to do when a young boy’s enthusiasm for gathering the bags with nativity scene figures in them meant that several other children didn’t get any at all.

But despite everything that was said and done, I figured it was OK. It was OK to have the story of Jesus’ arrival on earth mixed up with real life situations. That’s kind of how it is today. In the middle of all the unexpected events we face, Jesus is present in our lives. And His presence comes with the guarantee that our lives will turn out so much better than we expected.