Choosing a Bride for Isaac

Our lesson was on God choosing a bride for the Promised son Isaac, a picture pointing us to the bride of Christ. We stressed God's absolute sovereignty over the selection and the faith of the humble servant sent to seek such a precious treasure.

In our Opening Time, we played a game with the white board reviewing the Bible verses. We would sing the verse, then erase one word and draw a picture to replace the word, then sing it again. We kept doing this, until we ran out of time.

We had our small but loyal group again of Joey, Jacob, Brielle and Melanie. Once in our room, we all sat down and I gave each of them a little tin pail. I had a ceramic camel sitting in a glass bowl and a pitcher of water (our well) sitting next to it. I told them that in today's story someone was going to get water from a well to give to some thirsty camels. We talked about how very much water camels can drink and how very much work it would be to water one camel, let alone 10 camels -- which is what the person in our story did! We began to water our camel as we reviewed our Verse Jingles. The children took turns coming up and dipping water out of the well, then pouring it over the thirsty camel as we sang the jingles. I could tell that they all knew the verses well.

When we had worked through all the songs, we moved over to our Story Area and sat on big chairs from the library this week. These chairs were great! Everyone was so still and listened so well. I opened by placing on the floor three figures, one of a camel, one of a woman and one of a servant man. I asked Jacob to pick one of them. He chose the camel. I explained that Jacob had chosen the camel out of all the figures in front of him. Then I said that in today's story, we would hear about someone choosing something too.

I told how Abraham told his servant to go and choose a bride for Isaac, but that the servant did not know who to pick. But God did. So the servant went to God and asked for help. God already knew who Isaac's wife would be, of course. During appropriate points in the story, I had children come up and choose the figures that fit the action in the story. God answered the servant's prayer and showed him Rebekah, the woman He had picked for Isaac.

After our story, we gathered at the table to look through the wonderful Badge Books that Mrs. Salsamendi had made for us. They have the list of Badge Requirements, the Verse Schedule and Verse Jingles, and a foam page on which to pin the awards. All of the children in this class have memorized the first 10 verses we have studied. They are like sponges and you parents are to be blessed for soaking them in the Word of God! We awarded the little cross pins and talked about how to earn the other badges. The requirements are all designed to help make the spiritual disciplines a habit for our children, and we are always emphasizing that the real treasure is not the badge but knowing God better. When your child completes the requirements for a certain badge, just send their book with them to class and we'll award them their pin. If you have any questions at all, please e-mail me or call me.

We finished the evening by playing a variation on our version of Musical Chairs. I picked eight crayons, two each of four colors. Then we put four chairs in a row and placed a crayon on each of the chairs. We sang our Verses, then when we had finished everyone quickly found a chair. One child then chose a crayon from my hand, without looking, and whichever child was sitting on the chair with that color crayon got to be the leader as they marched around the chairs in the next round. They truly find this game a source of endless fun!

January 6: Last week, we worked on a Letter-Matching Puzzle in Opening Time as we learned Proverbs 1:7. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline." I had a small bag full of plastic letters and had written out the verse on a piece of construction paper. The children had to choose a letter and match it to the same letter in the verse. They did very well with this. Then we decorated the verse with some sparkly stickers.

In our classroom, we finished decorating the verse sign, then we needed to make a bathroom visit. On our way back from that visit, we had a Divine Appointment. We met a little boy named Brian who was waiting with his Daddy while a meeting was going on in the school library. He was 4 years old, so we invited him in with us. He wanted to play with all the toys in the classroom and had a hard time leaving them alone, and I had to explain that these weren't our toys and that we had promised that we would not use them if they let us use their classroom. Jacob was so helpful. He told Brian, "I used to have a hard time with that too. But now I'm okay." Brian had a much easier time leaving the toys alone after that!

I had brought little Christmas gifts for the children but hadn't been able to give them to them before the break. I had the presents all inside gift bags, then inside a plain cardboard box taped and tied shut. I told the children that the box was a gift and that all gifts come from God. He is the provider of every good and perfect gift. I asked if they wanted to see what was inside the box. They did, so I had Brian cut the string. We opened the box and then passed out the bags. Inside were some small gifts that we enjoyed right then, some play dough and some capsules that you dropped in water to watch small sponges emerge. We played for a while, then I began to tell the story -- about Abraham being asked to sacrifice Isaac.

At this point, little Brian asked his Dad (who had come in with him) if they could leave. But his Dad seemed eager for Brian to hear the story. So he encouraged him to stay, and I did the same. He was wiggly at first and got out of his chair to come stand by me. I put him in my lap and continued and as the story went on he just got very quiet and sweet and seemed to be listening.

In our story, we emphasized that God is faithful: He provided a ram, spared Isaac and promised to bless Isaac and His descendants. I also pointed out how our story about Father Abraham reminds us very much of another Father who offered His son as a sacrifice -- and no one stopped His hand. Rightly so, for that son was Lord Jesus, whose death was the only way to pay the penalty for all the sins of His people and to credit them with His perfect righteousness, which they could never earn.

The Word of God truly engages us in a supernatural way -- it is living and active. I was so thankful that this little boy joined us, got to hear the Gospel and that our children were so kind and welcoming to him.

We finished by coloring our pictures and invited Brian to come next week. Keep praying that he will return! See you all Wednesday.