This fictional story is based on an actual children's skit I designed when I was teaching the 4 & 5 year olds in our Children's Program. The skit was never enacted, and I should also say neither did we have any of the disasters on stage that are mentioned. The personalities do not represent any known, or unknown, children, teachers or congregations.
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The Children's Program
In taking her new position as the new Sunday School teacher of the four and five year olds, Sarah knew one of her duties would be for her class to deliver a performance in an end of the season program. This was a church tradition from the adults down to the youngest when the Sunday School classes ended for the summer months.
She enjoyed her time with the children, yet she couldn't help but recall the horrors of the past. The incidents of children, and even the teachers, fighting on stage. Costume malfunctions or no one sang except the teacher, or children crying and running from the platform. Several years, no one learned their lines and teacher cued each word for word so the entire skit was an echoed speech, with the teacher speaking and the child repeating it back. Not wanting to present a similar disaster, with the age she was entrusted with, Sarah wondered if her class would be able to do anything.
With the requirement in mind, during the ensuing weeks, she learned her children’s personalities. Amanda was shy and very small for her age. Harry liked to talk and chattered away sometimes incessantly. Freddy liked attending, but as his parents had joint custody, missed every third week away visiting his father. Sylvie would take off her shoes and socks as soon as she entered the building, frequently forgetting where she left them. Ginny disrupted the class screaming for her Mommy. At her mother’s request, if her antics became too unruly, punishment meant banishment to the nursery. This was unfortunate, as Ginny learned this trick and she would go smugly to play with the babies, whenever Sarah couldn't take it anymore. Naomi and her sister Valerie were the smartest and studied, answering well and asking good questions. Then there was Christopher the bully. Many times Christopher spent some of his Sunday School time standing in the corner for having hit, kicked or bitten someone, namely Sarah. Occasionally a new child would come for only one Sunday, or possibly a few weeks.
Easter came and went and Sarah still hadn’t anything planned. When asked about it she would answer she was working on it but she knew it was a half-lie, which made her feel worse. She feared producing the disaster everyone seemed to expect. During the first week of May, she spent her noon lunchtime fasting and praying while seated in her car in the parking garage where she worked, her open Bible on the steering wheel. Pausing from her reading, she said, “God, it seems such a simple thing, why is it such a complicated task when it just involves these little children? You know them, Lord Jesus. There must be something they can do for you.” Refocusing on the Bible, she smiled, for there in front of her was the simplest answer.
The day of the end of the season program, Sarah felt proud when all seven children attended. They had all enjoyed rehearsals, with Christopher taking his roll with gusto and Ginny apparently willing to participate.
Her class performing first, Sarah assembled them behind the curtain on the left side of the stage. Their only prop was a huge refrigerator box lain horizontally on a rolling platform Sarah had requested made. She could feel the stares of the congregation and their
skepticism, knowing they anticipated the traditional fracas. Saying a small prayer with her children, she nodded for them to go out, while shushing the giggling girls.
Christopher, Harry, and Freddy pushed the refrigerator carton to the center of the stage. Sarah followed, taking her place behind the box as the boys stood to either side, Harry and Freddy on the left and Christopher on the right. None of the girls was in sight.
Sarah smiled at the staring faces, pleased to see the parents in the crowd. With no preliminaries, she opened the skit by reciting Hebrews 12:1. “I beseech you therefore, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” When she finished, the boys, in unison, loudly yelled, “What can we give to Jesus?”
Immediately, the top of the box flew open and the four girls popped into view, arms raised, and tossing streamers of colorful paper. All seven children and Sarah, arms raised, yelled the answer “Ourselves!”
With the platform littered with the streamers and each child smiling broadly, they took their bows. Then the boys shoved the box back behind the curtain, with the giggling girls still in the box. Off stage, the children clustered around Sarah, anxiously waiting for the response. For a moment the auditorium was silent, then someone began to clap, and then another, and so on until the entire room was applauding.
Sarah quickly shooed the children onto stage to take another bow then hugged them all tightly as they came rushing back again. Kissing their faces, she said, “Thank you, Jesus, for trusting me with these children.”
With the requirement in mind, during the ensuing weeks, she learned her children’s personalities. Amanda was shy and very small for her age. Harry liked to talk and chattered away sometimes incessantly. Freddy liked attending, but as his parents had joint custody, missed every third week away visiting his father. Sylvie would take off her shoes and socks as soon as she entered the building, frequently forgetting where she left them. Ginny disrupted the class screaming for her Mommy. At her mother’s request, if her antics became too unruly, punishment meant banishment to the nursery. This was unfortunate, as Ginny learned this trick and she would go smugly to play with the babies, whenever Sarah couldn't take it anymore. Naomi and her sister Valerie were the smartest and studied, answering well and asking good questions. Then there was Christopher the bully. Many times Christopher spent some of his Sunday School time standing in the corner for having hit, kicked or bitten someone, namely Sarah. Occasionally a new child would come for only one Sunday, or possibly a few weeks.
Easter came and went and Sarah still hadn’t anything planned. When asked about it she would answer she was working on it but she knew it was a half-lie, which made her feel worse. She feared producing the disaster everyone seemed to expect. During the first week of May, she spent her noon lunchtime fasting and praying while seated in her car in the parking garage where she worked, her open Bible on the steering wheel. Pausing from her reading, she said, “God, it seems such a simple thing, why is it such a complicated task when it just involves these little children? You know them, Lord Jesus. There must be something they can do for you.” Refocusing on the Bible, she smiled, for there in front of her was the simplest answer.
The day of the end of the season program, Sarah felt proud when all seven children attended. They had all enjoyed rehearsals, with Christopher taking his roll with gusto and Ginny apparently willing to participate.
Her class performing first, Sarah assembled them behind the curtain on the left side of the stage. Their only prop was a huge refrigerator box lain horizontally on a rolling platform Sarah had requested made. She could feel the stares of the congregation and their
skepticism, knowing they anticipated the traditional fracas. Saying a small prayer with her children, she nodded for them to go out, while shushing the giggling girls.Christopher, Harry, and Freddy pushed the refrigerator carton to the center of the stage. Sarah followed, taking her place behind the box as the boys stood to either side, Harry and Freddy on the left and Christopher on the right. None of the girls was in sight.
Sarah smiled at the staring faces, pleased to see the parents in the crowd. With no preliminaries, she opened the skit by reciting Hebrews 12:1. “I beseech you therefore, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” When she finished, the boys, in unison, loudly yelled, “What can we give to Jesus?”
Immediately, the top of the box flew open and the four girls popped into view, arms raised, and tossing streamers of colorful paper. All seven children and Sarah, arms raised, yelled the answer “Ourselves!”
With the platform littered with the streamers and each child smiling broadly, they took their bows. Then the boys shoved the box back behind the curtain, with the giggling girls still in the box. Off stage, the children clustered around Sarah, anxiously waiting for the response. For a moment the auditorium was silent, then someone began to clap, and then another, and so on until the entire room was applauding.
Sarah quickly shooed the children onto stage to take another bow then hugged them all tightly as they came rushing back again. Kissing their faces, she said, “Thank you, Jesus, for trusting me with these children.”
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