Jesus drew crowds that spilled over Mediterranean hillsides. These masses were intrigued enough to sit and listen for hours. Reluctantly, I must admit I'm not nearly as compelling. My kids will sit and listen for somewhere under three minutes…and sometimes after the one-minute mark the sitting becomes optional. So you take something like "God is the omnipotent, creator, sustainer and Redeemer of the world. He has no inherent evil and cannot lie. His incarnation predicated a social, spiritual and norm-shattering revolution that initiated the most titanic revival in culture, community and hearts that has ever been recorded. " and whittle it down to "God…wow!" Or say, take the creation, fall and redemption story which took generations to weave and 66 books of the Bible to record and watch it compact nicely to "We goofed…God gave." All that abridging takes time, not to mention translating all that "church talk" into a voice that could survive on the street

My plans were to share with the kids that God looks at the heart and I spent close to an hour preparing. About 20 sets of brown eyes looked at me eagerly as I began. As I reached the climax of the story one little girl raised her hand and I thought…Oh this is wonderful! She gets it. Now she's going to make some insightful comment that will really bring it down to the language of all the kids around her.

But no. When I called on her she straightened up in her chair and broadcast with confidence, "Did you know that if an elephant lies on its side for more than two hours it will die? Crushed under the power of its own weight!"

And that was the end of my lesson, because I could not stop laughing. Perhaps that's why Jesus fed the crowds when he taught. It kept them quiet.

Was I disappointed that my lesson had disintegrated into this? No. It's their church, not my moment to shine. These kids are a part of a viable community and they need to talk about God and faith in terms that seven and eight-year-olds can relate to…like elephants, or things that have nothing to do with what my adult mind thought was so important. In a church full of 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders, a monologue is BORING, but a dialogue? Now that's where it's at!

Jesus said the kingdom belonged to children. The very Savior of the world would slow down and take his little creations in his arms. Knowing kids, I'm sure they realized better than anybody else who this man was. So you can imagine the questions he must have fielded. Perhaps one or two about elephants or maybe he even received a few suggestions about how he was running things.

This is what I desire our time together to be full of…conversation. So a lesson on inner beauty leads to the kids thinking about elephants crushing themselves. I'm sure there's gospel in here somewhere. It was a good day. A very good day at church.

* all names and identifying details have been changed to protect anonymity. © Amy Beth Augustin Barlow 2004