lamb
Last week my friend John was teaching Psalm 23 in preschool Sunday school–or trying to, anyway. A couple of the boys in the class had made guns out of Legos and were shooting the place up.
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want,” John read.
Pow! Pow! Pyoing!
“He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside the still waters…”
Bang! Rat-a-tat-a-tat-a! Pow!
It wasn’t going so well. Things had reached the point where I would have snatched the Lego guns out of the boys’ grubby fists and made them sit on their hands while I gave them an earful of the peace of God. But John, as it turns out, is a wiser sort of Sunday school teacher. He looked at the gunmen and said, “I’ll tell you what. We’re going to be sheep. You’re going to be the shepherds. I want you to use those guns to protect us from any wolves or lions that might be a danger to us.”
The boys couldn’t believe their good fortune. John and the other students got down on all fours and foraged around the Sunday school room while the two boys with the Lego guns secured the perimeter, blazing away at wolves and lions and sheep rustlers. That done, the boys led the sheep to green pastures and still waters.
Fellow Traveler
Oh, most excellent. Brilliant. Let’s hope they are just as enthusiastic about hunting down real “wolves” when they grow up and possibly have real “sheep” of their own.
sally apokedak
Great story. I taught the tots one year. It was not an easy task. Good for your friend John.
luaphacim
I love it. It’s like redemption — God sees past my violent Lego-games to the shepherd’s heart that is somehow hidden within.
Jess
In the words of Jars of Clay, “I–I got a question, I got a question, where are you?”
Jonathan Rogers
Hey, Jess…you have asked a good question. I’m teaching 5 classes this fall at a couple of colleges Nashville, and the preparations have gotten me a little off-track in the blogging department. I keep thinking I’m going to get started back up in a day or two, and I keep getting derailed. I hope you won’t give up on me.
Jess
Okay. 🙂 I won’t. But I’m glad to have a reason for my patience. 😉
Anonymous
For what it’s worth, I think it would be kind of fun to hear about your classes – maybe you could just post syllabus excerpts or something! :-p