A gift shrouded in decorative wrappings always presents an element of mystery!
Okay, so in this case, there was not that much secrecy. It was, after all, “hand-out-the-Bibles-Sunday” — so you were well aware of what object hid beneath this pretty paper.
Except, even when the paper has been removed, the gift is still mysterious!
Indeed, what is the Bible all about?
It does not provide the answer to all of our questions.
Then how are we to approach it?
Learn with the children… It started in the worship service.
This Bible must be something that is significant! After all, every third grader received a gift of one from the church. It was given out in a reverent sort of way – in front of everyone – in a memorable ceremony with each parent handing their child their gift as their name was called.
Pastor Doug showed us some of his Bibles. He has more than one! This Bible must be really important.
The mystery continued… we discovered that this gift was hidden beneath layers of gift wrap — five layers, to be exact.
It turns out as we unwrapped, that each layer taught us something about the Bible! After the gift wrap layer there was brown paper. An old-looking wrapper reminding us this is a book of very old stories. There is mystery in wondering why some of these stores were told over and over and over again! And why were they considered so important; important enough to be written down?
The next layer is the funny pages! (Do today’s kids even know what those are?) The comics tell stories, so the mystery is: What story is God telling me, here and now? It is for us to figure out! Thank goodness for dinner table discussion and for Sunday’s Cool to help!
The 4th layer is shiny, gold paper. Gold is something valuable. What great value to discover that every story in the Bible points to God’s love for us!
But why!? Why does he love me? I am flawed!
Ah, the last layer was a clue: it was nice, clean, new, white. No mystery here; I get a fresh chance whenever I flub up! (Thanks, God!)
Finally, we made it to the final gift: our very own copy of the Bible! We were instructed to find our current Rotation story: The Parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37.
How appropriate that we’ve been studying a parable! A parable is a story with a hidden meaning! I can trust that the mysteries will continue.
I wonder if I will allow the mystery to nourish me?
It’s time for the group photo…
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| The class of 2025! |
Photo credits:
Last group photo taken by Tom Gardner.
Rest of photos from my archives.
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Family Faith Companion 