A different boat story
To be honest I wasn’t as prepared to teach as I should have been. I grabbed the talk sheets and found one that wasn’t about the resurrection. Between the Easter season and finishing up Children’s Bible Quizzing on Matthew, lately there have been many lessons on the resurrection. Important stuff but I knew if I did one more lesson on it I would lose their attention.
As I handed out the talk sheets, one of the boys said, “We already did this lesson.” What? Are you kidding me? This was what I was trying to avoid. Let’s just say his attitude was less than stellar but mine wasn’t great either. My knee-jerk reaction was to quote 2 Timothy 3:16-17.
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
As that scripture ran through my mind, God said don’t let it come out of your mouth. Take a breath. You are the teacher. Calm down. Enjoy your time with my lambs.
Another child chimed in “I think it was a different boat story.” Racking my brain to remember the lessons before Easter I realized we had done a different boat story. After a moment I responded, “You are right. I remember we did a different boat story about Peter walking on water. But you know what I love about the Bible even though I have heard the stories many times. I can learn something new.” And thus, began a delightful time of teaching not because I was prepared, or service didn’t run long (it actually ran very late) but because God in His mercy and love wanted us all to learn more about him and each other.
35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”
39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” Mark 4:35-41 NIV
I read the passage, we reviewed the questions and had meaningful discussion. One of the questions was about the other boats. One of boys commented “does the Bible say there were other boats?” We went back and reread the story. Yes, it does. A couple of students commented “I didn’t know there were other boats?” Neither did I. Wow! We learned something new.
Since service still hadn’t ended I decided to ask the kiddos various questions to keep our “conversation” going. “What’s your favorite animal?” One girl responded “dolphin” which lead to me sharing a story that fit so beautifully into the lesson that I knew it was only God.
My daughters swam with the dolphins when we were in the Bahamas. As we headed back from the dolphin adventure, it was raining, windy and the waves were splashing all over the place. I was a little nervous but tried to pretend it was all good. As the ride got worst, I looked at my daughters and said, “if the boat starts to go down save yourselves and I will take care of Nanny.” Just then I glanced over my shoulder and noticed a young child snuggled in a towel and resting in his mother’s arms. He was sleeping. He wasn’t afraid. I now neither was I.
How neat that you learned something new. Itsn’t it interesting that even though we have read the Bible often, God shows something new?
Love the story of your girls and swimming with dolphins.