The Best Plans...

© 1999 Don Rogers

I planned for the children to experience a magi like moment by following a star I had made out of foil on a stick. I had already planted an identical star at the foot of our sanctuary cross.

They followed the star as I carried it around the sanctuary and then, to divert their attention I said, "Oh look, a flock of turtles!" When they turned back to me the star had disappeared and I said "I wonder where the star is? Can we find it?"

It worked. They found the star at the foot of the cross and I could complete my lesson. The next Sunday they were full of questions, the main one being, "Where are those turtles?"

On another Sunday, Easter Sunday, I made the point that the difference between Jesus and the easter bunny was that if the easter bunny would happen to die, that bunny would not be raised to life like Jesus was. Afterwards that day and weeks following all I heard about from many parents was, "How could you kill the easter bunny, how could you."

I thought filling a balloon with air that we couldn't see might illustrate how the Spirit whom we cannot see could fill our lives. My filled balloon escaped from my fingers and went spurting off across the pews to become lodged in the hair and snagged on the hair pin of dear woman and try as we might we couldn't get it unsnagged.

On another Sunday I had two raw eggs in my special laminated box from which object lessons would appear for the children's moment. Each egg was painted with a glowering angry face.

Then lesson was how we can get mad and fight and suffer if we don't learn how to love and forgive. The climax was for the eggs to butt into each other and crack and spill back into the box. Maybe it was a defective egg. I had rehearsed this in advance. But when these eggs butted heads the yolk from one flew through the air like a yellow projectile and landed on the pretty dress and in the pocket of a child who greeted the moment with a scream heard all of the way to the nursery.

One thanksgiving there was a lovely cornucopia on the altar and the pastor asked the children during the children's time, "Where did all this wonderful food come from?" A four year old immediately answered, "Krogers."