Faith Matters 7: Sowing Seeds of Faith.
From The Gardner News, Saturday, August 19, 2006:
Isn’t it mysterious how a song or a musical phrase can lodge in your mind without your even being aware of it? An old, African-American spiritual I learned in summer camp begins, “Nobody knows the troubles I’ve seen, nobody knows but Jesus.” Those few words, wrapped in a half-remembered musical phrase, became my salvation during my own time of troubles. Years later that single line from a song I barely remembered, came back to life in a voice of its own, bringing me comfort during stormy and painful adolescent years, assuring me that someone really did understand what my own private teenage pain and sorrow was like.
I was thinking about this during our church’s week-long Vacation Bible School. Thirty preschool and elementary school children come every day for three hours of singing, crafts, games and drama. Some of the children are already part of our church family; others are from area churches or no church at all. They learn and sing high- energy songs with broad hand and body motions adapted from American sign-language. Some of the parents tell me their kids sing them over and over again at home, complete with hand motions and jumps for joy. Watching thirty excited children singing and dancing and having a great time is contagious, and before long, the adult volunteers have joined in as well!
Many of us older folks grew up in straight-laced churches where we were taught to sit with hands folded neatly in our laps. We only sang “church music,” staid and proper hymns that had withstood the test of time, often centuries worth of time. Now our children are bringing us a new energy for worship and the realization that we can pray with our bodies as well as our voices and our heads. Most of the children are totally engrossed in their songs and movements. Others are a little shy, but you can see them starting to move with the music, starting to say the words, starting to stretch out their hands. By the second or third day, they too are keeping up with the music. Their joy and enthusiasm is contagious, reminding us of Jesus’ words that we need to become like children in order to enter the kingdom of God.
What will they take away from this one week of Vacation Bible School? Our hope is that they will leave remembering that they had a good time in church and that they want to come back. We hope they leave knowing that they are loved by the One who created them and who calls out to them in love.
In this all-too-short week, perhaps a few seeds of faith have been planted, even if they don’t bear fruit for many years. I find myself hoping the music and a phrase or two will find a place in their hearts and minds. “Jesus is our friend, he is our helper,” they sing in our opening song. Perhaps several years from now these simple words will rise out of memory to soothe a child lying awake at night, frightened by what he or she hears in their home or feels in their heart. Perhaps a half-remembered line from a simple song learned a long time ago will remind them that they are never alone, that they always have a Friend and a Helper.