God is Still Creating...

This morning I had six fourth graders and their parents for a class on the Apostles' Creed. It's a lot to cover in an hour and a half, and I think the Holy Spirit got short shrift (she nearly always does), but we had a good time, starting with the name tags.

Everyone wore three name tags. We talked about different names we have, nicknames, roles we take, and how we are not three different people. We talked about different uniforms we sometimes wear at different times, a sports jersey, a school uniform, a suit and tie, a bathing suit. We talked about how God comes to us in different ways, too.

Everybody got an apple, and the parents cut it in half. The young people tried to think about the parts of the apple, and also the different "persons" of God. They got to imagine that God the Father is like the ______ of the apple because_______________. There were no wrong answers, just good imaginations.

Afterwards, we got to eat the apples.

There is a beautiful piece of art in the room where we met, an artistic rendition of the Apostle's Creed. We stood in front of the art piece for awhile, reciting the creed, and talking about some of the words we didn't understand.

We drew pictures of stories from the Bible about Jesus. We each drew a picture of a story about something Jesus did that ISN'T in the creed.

My favorite part of the class, though, just lasting a few minutes, was when we talked about God the father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

What are some of the things that God created?

bears, snakes, giraffes, flowers, cats, birds.......us.

"Us," one little girl said.

"yes, us," I said. "God didn't just create along time ago. God is still creating, and when you look in the mirror, you can see...."

".....a creation of God."

When you look at a snake, when you look at a bird, when you look at the grass, when you look at a star, when you look at your sister, when you look at your brother,

When you look at yourself, you can see.... a creation of God.

And you know what? It was a sermon to me, too.