Am I the only one who can hardly believe that summer vacation is over and school is starting again? Wherever has this month/summer/year gone? People, this is serious! I’m getting old at an alarming rate. I’ve been regularly told by my LITTLES that I’m “really, really old!” and I’m starting to believe it.
The other Sunday while we were discussing a younger sibling’s birthday, the discussion turned to how old each of The LITTLES was, and we discovered that we had a two year old, a three year old, a five year old and two seven year olds. That was good for a couple of minutes of discussion, then Charis looked thoughtful.
“Grammy!” She said, “How old are you?”
“How old do you think I am,” I asked, because I always love to hear their responses and I’m never offended at their answers, only entertained.
“Well,” she said thoughtfully, “I think you are probably 77!”
Her friend, Amanda, a frequent visitor to the class said disdainfully, “Nah! I think she’s 58!”
“Well,” I said, “I’m 62! I’m going to be 63 on my birthday in a few months.”
“Oh,” said Charis, philosophically, “Well, Amanda and I were almost right. We were each just one off!”
That made me laugh, of course, and I thought about how a child’s mind works, and how totally logical it seemed to them that anything in the 60’s would only be “one off” from something in the 50’s or 70’s.
My LITTLES have given me lots of pause to consider over these last months. There was an especially impressive time on the Sunday that we discussed Pentecost and the giving of the Holy Spirit. I struggled with how to make this lesson real to this age spread, and wondered about how we could even begin to catch the importance of the Holy Spirit. One of the suggested activities was to tie red crepe paper streamers to a fan, and to explain how even though we cannot see the wind, it has an effect on the streamers. It is a force that is very real, even though it is invisible.
I had thought about this lesson a lot over the week before, and had decided that the streamers and the fan were a good idea. While I was pondering what else I could do to emphasize the lesson for the LITTLES, I saw some of those small windmills on a stick sticking out of an end bin at Walmart, and had a flash of inspiration. This was something that the children could hold in front of the fan and see how a fast they would go in a strong and forceful wind and they could take them home at the end of the class period and it could be a reminder. I pounced upon the stash and procured the five I needed and felt like God had provided a small miracle and burst of inspiration especially for me.
Sunday morning. Certain Man helped me to carry the large fan up to the classroom and I attached the red streamers to it. When the class started, the kids were so excited to see the fan, and of course wondered what in the world we were going to do. The windmills were held in reserve until after they had a chance to hear the story and I could turn on the fan to show them how the streamers worked. They were duly impressed. They gathered around and tried to catch the dancing and swaying streamers and laughed and talked and jostled for a place in the strong breeze.
Then I brought out the windmills and gave each of them one. This was high attraction. The fan was very large, and there was plenty of room, but it didn’t take long before there was more than friendly competition for what was perceived as the best place, and whose windmill was spinning the fastest and there was much stomping about trying to have the most air. I contained the commotion for quite a while, encouraging them to give each other room, to share the space, and to not shove.
When it seemed that they had all had adequate exposure, and enough time to watch their windmill spin merrily around, I said, “Okay, kids. Let’s take our windmills back to our seats. You may take them home with you and play with them there.” And I turned off the fan.
You would have thought that I was depriving them of their personal oxygen supply. There was great disapproval and grumbling until one enterprising youngster said, “Wait! Look! You can blow on these windmills and they will still turn!”
Immediately there was great huffing and puffing while the five of them attempted to make their windmills turn under the power of their own breath. In comparison to the fan, the windmills barely turned but the five of them were so occupied with the fact that they were moving that they barely noticed that they were about to hyperventilate.
And that was when the Spirit of the LORD spoke to my heart. I stood there, watching my beloved LITTLES, and it was almost funny until I felt like God said to me, “That’s just what you look like to ME!”
“Excuse me? Is that you LORD?”
“That’s just what you look like to me when you step away from the mighty power of the Holy Spirit and try to produce results in your own power. It’s every bit as ridiculous, and it’s far more futile. So often you try to do or say things in your own strength, and it really doesn’t go anywhere because it’s not of me. Pay attention, Daughter. This lesson wasn’t as much for your LITTLES as it was for you.”
I really can’t tell you much about the rest of that class period. I had so much to think about. There were so many thoughts and pictures running through my mind. Pictures of times when intentions may have been good, but the power source just wasn’t right. Pictures of times when the Power was blowing, but my little windmill was off on a shelf or looking for another breeze. Times when I just didn’t get it at all, and was depleted and tired and almost “hyperventilating” from trying to reproduce in my own strength what I could have gotten from the Power that was far greater and not only promised to me, but readily available.
My LITTLES took their windmills home, and I hope that they remember something about that lesson. But even if they never do, I will! It sits in my heart, a cherished lesson for this teacher of LITTLES, who desperately needed it in this time and in this place.
My time with this group of LITTLES is coming to an end. Today is my last scheduled Sunday for teaching. Next Sunday is our Church Retreat weekend, and the following Sunday is the beginning of our new quarter. How very much I shall miss them! But this is a good move. A young couple will team teach and they have relationships in place already within the class. I am content, as well as certain that this what should be. Certain Man and I want to do a little traveling (yes, ME, TOO!) and I am looking forward to a bit less chaotic Sunday mornings. We’d like to have more Sunday company, and I also am greatly looking forward to being a part of the Older – (Ahem!) Mature Women’s Sunday school class.
And so, my heart gives grateful praise for the blessings of my life. I am so blessed. May each of you see the blessings that are yours as well.
Delaware Grammy 