"Who Has My Silver Cup?"

The Book of Genesis concludes with the final chapters of Joseph's story, showing how all along God was ordaining events to save Jacob's family through Joseph and to mold Joseph's brothers into humble, repentant and grateful people, the only kind of people fit to glorify and enjoy God forever. And this is our story, too: Joseph is a type of Christ, and we are the brothers, whose sin put Christ on the cross.

With this story, we end the Book of Genesis. I hope your children understand now just what we mean when we talk about the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He chose these men at His good pleasure, made them precious promises, and showed Himself faithful. Their family history is our family history, and I am so thankful to have had these past few months to share and talk about it with this sweet class. (We move right on to Exodus and the story of Moses next week.)

This week was fun because both Jacob and Melanie earned badges. Jacob had completed his Personal Devotions badge. He called me yesterday to tell me about it: He would spend about five minutes or so looking at pictures in a story Bible and his mom had also encouraged him to pray during that time (but she didn't force it or make a big deal about it.) After about five minutes she would come back, and he would pick one of the stories he had seen in the picture and Shannon would read it to him. (I hope I am reporting this correctly, Shannon.) There are so many different ways to encourage a personal Bible time, and I think this is a great example of how to do it -- very short and simple, establishing a daily habit that we hope will be lifelong.

Melanie had read "The King with no Shadow" and "The Priest with Dirty Clothes." Agnes told me that after reading the second book, Melanie made the connection on her own to the hymn we sing: "What can wash away our sin/ Nothing but the blood of Jesus." She told me about the children getting dirty in the mud in the opening and not being able to get clean and then gave a summary of the main story, with the prince giving his own perfect clothes so the priest in dirty clothes could go to the King.

We opened with a puzzle of a silver (aluminum foil) goblet with our verse on it. The Proverb is only peripherally tied to this story, but it is a wonderful parenting verse. The Bible is so direct and does not mince words: Only a fool gives full vent to his anger. No one wants to be a fool. I've updated our Memory Verse Schedule and the Jingles to cover the end of the year, and gave some of the children CDs for the next 10 verses. (We've learned 7 so far!) I'll try to find you on Sunday if you didn't get yours.

In our classroom, we started right away with a game to introduce the story. Last week, we had talked about Joseph's brothers going to Egypt for grain during the famine. We started in "Canaan" (one side of the room) and this week, I gave the children shiny silver coins. They were told to throw the coin as far as they could, then run to it, pick it up and do it again, all the way to "Egypt", the other side of the room.

Once over there, they asked Governor Joseph (me) for some grain. I gave each a bag filled with "grain" (rice) and then they had to make their way back home (outside) where they dumped their bags out one by one into a bowl. Something shiny and silver was in the bag belonging to "Benjamin". (It was Melanie the first time.) The silver was actually a Hershey kiss, but I told them that we would pretend it was a silver cup.

We got our wiggles out by having "Benjamin" lead us back to Egypt in a follow-the-leader type of game and then repeated the game with Jacob having a turn to play "Benjamin".

Everyone was tired after so many trips to Egypt, so we settled in for the story. I told them that the game had really been about today's story -- and told them to listen very closely to the story so we could play the game again when we were finished.

Last week, we heard how Joseph had given the brothers food but kept Simeon in jail, ordering them to return with Benjamin if they wanted to free Simeon and get more food. (This is another picture of Christ -- the innocent brother must be sent to free the guilty brother.) In this week's story, Jacob does not want to send Benjamin to Egypt, but finally allows it. Governor Joseph, wanting to find out if his brothers have really repented, "plants" his silver cup in Benjamin's bag of grain and then watches to see their reaction when Benjamin is wrongly accused. They show that God has changed their hearts by returning with their brother and pleading his case to the governor. God is All-Powerful, and only He can change hearts. There is a moment of tension right before Joseph reveals himself to his brothers and we are waiting to see what he will do. I paused here for effect, then told how God had given Joseph a heart to forgive his brothers and the wisdom to see that He had orchestrated every single event to save the family. The brothers meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. Melanie jumped right out of her seat and said, "Oh!! He was so kind!!" She is absolutely right! He is! And she is right to be so excited about it! (This is one of the reasons why I love teaching your children so much.)

After the story, we played our game again, this time acting out the parts we had just heard, such as the guard who comes after the brothers and orders them to dump out their bags of grain. When the game was over, I told the children they could keep the shiny silver coins. Generous Jacob immediately gave his to Melanie. :-)

We sat down at the table to work on the book for the Bookmaking Badge. First we colored the picture that went with our story and answered questions as we did so. We talked again about how even when troubles come to us and it looks like evil people are getting away with doing bad things, God is in control and He works all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. We talked again about how only God can change our hearts and make us like Him and that He often uses things that are very hard in our lives to do that. We cut out our picture and pasted it onto a page saying "God is All-Powerful."

Then we went back to work on the page we are making for the front of the book. We have three columns, one with attributes of only God, one with attributes of only Man and one in the middle with attributes of both. I told the children that attributes are descriptions. We described each other (hair color,eyes, etc.) Then I asked them to describe God. Jacob told us that God is a spirit, He doesn't have arms and legs; He also told us God is love. Melanie remembered that God is everywhere and the most powerful. They are retaining what they are learning.

We have been working on the attribute of "INFINITE" and reviewed its meaning again this week. When I asked what it meant, Jacob answered right away, "Free." I knew just what he meant: We had talked about God being unlimited, not bound in any way. I reminded them that we are made in God's image, so we are like him but we are different too -- we are not infinite, we are finite, or limited. Our bodies get tired, we don't know everything, we can't understand some things, we are limited in so many ways. Jacob was very emphatic. "Oh, yes. God is soooo much better and different than we are." (Again, this is just the right response of excitement to God's "otherness.") We had golden letter stickers that we put on pieces of construction paper to spell out "INFINITE" and then pasted this under the God-only column. Melanie was doing a good job of guessing which letter would come next as we spelled it out. These are big, hard ideas, but they are reaching for them and reverencing God more as they get to know who He really is. A great class!