Coming up with a children's Christmas service with a bunch of children who are politically liberal and theologically cynical gets harder every year.
While browsing for resources on the internet I came across ChildrensMinistry.com. I didn't make it as far as their Christmas resources, because I was so stunned by their section on "Civic Duties: Patriotic Activities For Kids". This includes Patriotism Lessons, Prayer and Care Packages for families in the armed forces, and Patriotic Crafts.
Some ideas:
Children decorate a paper frame with markers and patriotic stickers, Each child then has his or her picture taken with the American flag...
Kids decoupage small slips of paper with the Pledge of Allegiance printed on them onto a 4x6-inch block of wood. Then kids add red, white, and blue sticker stars around the edges...
Say: "Let's practice being loyal to our country by making our country's flag." Give children paper and markers. Show them a picture of the flag and have them create a flag to match it. Help children tape their flag to a plastic straw so they can wave it.
Have groups each write a letter to the leader of your country, expressing their loyalty to the leader. Send the letters later.
I wonder how long I would last if I actually tried any of these on the kids? When talking about Christmas ideas last week one of the kids described Herod as "A mean guy" and another one piped up "maybe we could get Don Brash to be him in our play!"
Hmmm, maybe it's time for a little talk. Right-wing politicians may sometimes seem like "mean guys"... but I don't think Brash has massacred any innocents lately.
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A couple of nights ago I was reading a book (not the bible actually, but Woman why do you weep? Spirtuality for survivors of Childhood sexual abuse) and I came across this verse (Isaiah 43:2 from the “New American Bible”:
When you pass through the water, I will be with you; in the rivers you shall not drown.
I keep reading it over and over. I can never really connect with an idea of God like the one in the “Footsteps” posters, who has supposedly carried me through the hard times. Looking back I don't feel like I was carried along a beach, I feel like I was thrashing around in (and sometimes under) the water.
I like the Isaiah verse so much because it doesn’t say "God will lift you out of the water". I don't think that there's always the potential for floating. I mean some people seem to struggle in the water right till the end, and I don't think it's because they've done something wrong. It seems to me that the ability to “manage” or “float” is as much to do with random luck as suffering is. I mean some people get more than their fair share of suffering. And some of them seem to have the disposition and resources to "manage" it. I don't think that people who don't manage, or don't float, have done something wrong in their spiritual journey.
I’d like to believe in a God who is in the water with me, who maybe can't carry me, but doesn't leave me, and makes sure if I go under I come back up.