Last Sunday we looked at the long
journey of Abraham with the help of a very simple children’s game.
A volunteer from among our children
was blindfolded and then steered from the back of the main aisle of the church
to the front, by instructions called out by his parent at the front, having to
avoid 5 large objects laying in the aisle on the way.
Once the journey had been
negotiated, each of the objects was then used as a topic for a short talk
explaining its relevance to the story. So for Abraham we had
• A tent (two chairs covered with
a blanket) – symbolizing the itinerant nature of Abraham and his
fellow-travellers.
• A tray of damp sand in small
mounds (the hazards of the desert and hilly parts of the journey)
• A bucket half full of water (the
hazards of river crossings)
• A toy animal(s) (demonstrating
that Abraham must have been busy managing flocks and shepherds and negotiating
with local chiefs and tribal leaders – but still found time to talk with God
• A large star atlas (The promise
of many offspring and the commencement of the family of God who became the race
that Jesus belonged to and therefore the predecessors of the Christian family)
The very same game could be
played with any Bible Travel story (altering the obstacles appropriately) the
story of Moses - and the Israelites in the desert: the journey of The Magi: the
Flight into Egypt: St Paul's journeys.
We ended with two Abrahams(!) and
depending on the number of children you have, it is good to be sympathetic to
the enthusiasm of children to join in the fun once they've seen one of their
peers succeed - and being spontaneously applauded as happened at the end of our
first successful negotiation of the hazards!
The obstacles were, of course,
moved round once the second child was blindfolded.
The talk encompassed,
· the perseverance needed for our faith journey
· the importance of finding time to listen to and talk to God
· the faithfulness of God to his promises