Keep It Simple

Today I went to the church to my KidZone classroom to decorate for Easter and the new month. As I was making bulletin board labels and posting teaching pictures I realized why I love teaching kids about God---you just keep it simple! Adults make it more complicated than it really is. For example, last month we studied Creation. The truth we teach the kids: God created everything. No arguments about evolution, big-bang theory...God just spoke it and it WAS! The amazing paradox is that our Intelligent Creator who made everything in nature, with all of its complexities and intricacies, still cares about how we are going to pay for our car to get repaired! Children have that childlike faith that Jesus praised while he was on earth...they accept the fact that even though our God is mighty and powerful, He is not too busy to listen to our worries and concerns.

Some of the most profound theological truths that I have learned were gleaned not from a religion professor, but from my own children when they were preschool age. One evening we were on an overnight visit at my parents house and I was settling 3 year-old Ryan down for bed. I asked him to say his nighttime prayers and he began: "Thank you, Jesus, for Mommy and Daddy, and Grandma and Grandpa, and Sandy (their dog), and the cats, and for McDonalds, and for hamburgers, and fries and the ketchup, and the straws...." I had to eventually cut this prayer short...I was getting drowsy! Perhaps it was Ryan's way of postponing his actual bedtime a few more minutes, or maybe it was the way a four year old really expresses thanks to God...not forgetting any little provision that God gave us...but thanking the Lord for EVERYTHING! It was a good lesson to me, especially when I get negative.

Another time my two younger children, Michelle and Matthew were leaving big brother's T-ball game and we were having a conversation about a friend, Lisa, who was very ill. We were just talking and the children were holding my hands as we walked across the Little League field. Matthew stopped, looked up at me and said, "We need to pray for Lisa." I said, "Yes, we need to remember her in our prayers so God will touch her." Matthew came to a dead stop in the middle of the grassy field and bowed his head and prayed, "Dear Jesus, please heal Miss Lisa.she is very sick but I know you can make her all better. In Jesus Name, AMEN!" Matt couldn't care less that there were people all around us, probably witnessing this craziness...he just knew someone had a need and we needed to "lift it up" now...not later. How many of us adults promise to pray for someone and then get so busy with our life that we forget. I loved the lesson this taught me....when you are aware of a need in someone's life, don't procrastinate---intercede for them right then and there.

As I think about Jesus' resurrection this Easter I realize that that one event makes Christianity real...and gives us hope that we, too, will rise one day to be with Him in Heaven if we put our faith in Him. The people who were witnesses to this event had nothing to gain (and everything to lose) by making up the whole story of Jesus rising from the dead, and yet people today still doubt it. There were many, many eyewitnesses who saw the resurrected Christ after he arose and left the tomb. But even those devoted followers couldn't believe it...the women visited the tomb on that first Easter Sunday to take embalming spices...they totally expected to find the dead body of Christ in the sepulchre. The apostle Thomas (dubbed "Doubting Thomas" for time immemorial!) wouldn't believe until Jesus showed him the wounds in his hands and feet. Jesus said, "You have believed because you have seen. Blessed are those who have NOT seen and yet believe." May we recapture the childlike faith that we lose as we become jaded, cynical adults---because following Christ isn't complicated....it's so easy even a child can do it :)