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Adventures Of A Sunday School Teacher
By Archangelica | April 2, 2008
This past Sunday we had our first one room Sunday School class for children ages 4-12. After months of planning, preparation, creating, decorating and praying we did it! Five wonderful children were dropped off by still sleepy parents at 9:00 a.m. to listen to God stories, wonder out loud with questions and comments, sing while holding hands in a circle, color and create a cross for the room, make new friends, light candles at our homemade altar, pray, share and plant flower seeds for our Community Garden. We read the “Legend of the Three Trees” and talked about Jesus and dreams and seeds of hope that grow into new life. Each child selected two kinds of flowers from a variety of heirloom seeds and filled their seedling flats with soil, sprinkled seeds on the fresh soil, covered with more dirt and sprayed with a water bottle to which a natural growth stimulator was added. All of these were placed in a mini-greenhouse while we watch and wait for them to do the unseen work of growth. Today I went to evening services and checked on the now three day old seedlings, two had already sprouted a soft green tendril with two tiny leaves! “Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24)
In this, our first activity together, we planted seeds that will grow into all sorts of flowers: fancy, frail, plain, lavish, short, tall, bushy, regal. We find our own selves reflected back to us in their petal faces. All of the spritual life is contained in this simple activity; birth, growth, struggle, stretch, nourish, hunger, reach, care, nurture, blossom, bloom, wilt, wither, die. From this new seeds will be born and from them new life.
What is the use of these flowers? They are not edible, no hungry will be fed from them. They cannot be spun into socks for cold feet or warm winter sweaters. They cannot be harvested to build a home for the homeless. These flowers will not cure sickness, create peace, or save souls but they have a vocation! They will be picked and gathered in small batches and single stems to be taken, along with Holy Communion, to those in our parish who are sick, to the homebound and to those in hospital. They will be bearers of beauty, symbols of love, goodwill ambassadors. They have an incredible destiny. Can you see the surprised faces of their receivers? “These are from the garden the children planted. Remember we love you and are missing you.” Useless beauty indeed.
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