Samuel, Samuel...

Our verse this week was about delighting in the Law of the Lord, and Jacob arrived first to play our game. (Yes, I was impressed, as he had told his Dad I would be!) He chose a smiley face, then turned it over. I read the phrase from the verse that was on the back, and then he had to find the picture on the table that seemed to match up with the phrase (i.e. stone tablets for Law of the Lord). When we had done all of the smiley faces and matched them up, our entire verse was spelled out on the table in the right order. We sang the verse, Psalm, 1:2 to the tune of Home on the Range.


This activity continued when we got in the room, with the addition of SarahClaire and C.J. I gave each of them one of the pictures, representing a phrase from the verse. Then we sang the verse, and when we sang their phrase the child holding that picture had to stand up. When we got to the address, I let them sing it several times and delight in it, dancing and getting wiggles out.

Then we got ready for the most important thing we do in Children Desiring God: our Bible story. I told them that God's Word tells us what to believe about God and what God expects of us. And that gives us great delight. Knowing Him is the greatest delight.

To open the story, I did something a little different. I called C.J. up and had him close his eyes. Then I had SarahClaire and Jacob move to different spots in the room. SarahClaire and Jacob took turns disguising their voices and saying our verse. (I especially liked Jacob's robot voice and SarahClaire's very high voice.) C.J. had to listen closely and guess who was speaking.

He did very well and got them all right. I told the children that C.J. was a good listener, and that today we were going to hear about another boy who learned to be a good listener. I reminded them of last week's story about God answering Hannah's prayer by sending her Baby Samuel, whom she then took to live in the tabernacle. I asked the children, "Who else lived in the tabernacle?" I was looking for "Eli, the priest" as the answer, but Jacob raised his hand, and with the most angelic smile, and a sort of sigh of joy and awe, said, "God!" That was a very worshipful moment!


Then I told them that wonderful and very funny story of Samuel hearing God's voice and running to Eli, then finally realizing that voice was God. I told the children that God communicates with His people, He wants them to know Him, and the most common way that God talks to His people today is through His Word, the Bible. People don't normally hear God as an audible voice, although certainly anything is possible with God.

At the end of the story, we did two little activities to illustrate how to prepare to listen for and recognize God's "voice" -- or His Truth. I gave the children each a magnifying glass and a "normal" quarter (one of the old ones with the eagle on the back). (I had washed the quarters with hot water first, then GermX at home.) The children looked closely at the "normal" quarter and I told them to try to remember all that they could about that quarter. I let them do this for quite a while, and they really enjoyed it.

Then I put out a different quarter (one of the newer ones with the smaller profile of Washington and state symbols on the back). I asked them if this was a "normal" quarter? They said no. We compared several quarters. Sometimes I would put out a "normal" quarter and sometimes a "different" one, and they had to tell which it was.

When we were finished, I explained that we know what a "normal" quarter looks like by studying a "normal" quarter very closely. Then we easily recognize a different one. This is the same way with God's Voice of Truth. We know what kinds of things God says by reading His Word. We study His Word very carefully, and even memorize parts of it. Then we easily recognize if someone is saying something different from God's Voice of Truth.

To finish up in the classroom, we played a "Sheep Game". I told the children that Jesus mentions this too when He says that His sheep know His voice and they won't follow a stranger. ("His sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice." John 10:4-5) I explained that God's people are His sheep, and that they know so well the kinds of things that Jesus would say that they would not follow someone who would say things that are different from that. I had the children pretend to be sheep and "Baaaaa" when I said something that was God's Voice of Truth, then fold their arms and shake their heads and say "NO," when it was false. (I thought it best not to have them run away, although that is what the Scripture says and they certainly would have enjoyed it!) I chose examples that reinforced the Truths in their Bible memory verses, such as honoring your mother and father and not giving false testimony. They got these all correct and were emphatic in their "NOs!"

We ran out of time, so I tried to finish our question/discussion time at the table while waiting for parents -- but didn't get to cover in-depth all that I had hoped. Our main truth for the night was that God communicates with Man. I had wanted to see how much they could understand of the idea that the most perfect way that God has communicated about Himself to His people is: by sending Jesus. (And that that is why all of Scripture points to Jesus.)

"In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word." (Hebrews 1:3)

I said something similar and much briefer at one point during the story, but never got to really explain it and was curious to see how much of that they could get a hold of. It's a great Truth to chew on, that Jesus is God's most perfect expression of Himself. God's grace to sinful men through Jesus tells you all you need to know about the kind of Lord we serve. ("He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all — how will He not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" Romans 8:32) I do hope to get back to this Truth in one of our future classes!