“CEF not only has had a great impact in my life, but also in thousands of other children and adults with whom I come in contact on a regular basis. So often… I ask adults when they came to know the Lord as their personal Savior, and time and time again the answer will be through CEF as a young child.”
-Beverly LaHaye (Author and Speaker)
The week before Christmas, I met with 13 children to tell them the Christmas story. We talked about wrapping paper in reverse: how a tiny package wrapped in inside-out wrapping paper could contain a bag of chocolate twizzlers (we passed around the bag, and each child elatedly took two), but a big box wrapped with beautiful paper and smothered in ribbons could be completely empty. I will never forget the children’s looks of horror as they stared at that big, beautiful, empty box. One of the cardinal rules of Child-dom had been broken: never wrap an empty box with Christmas wrapping paper and ribbons.
As we talked about how Jesus didn’t look impressive but was God’s greatest Christmas gift (wrapping paper in reverse), as we talked through the story of His birth, I re-learned an invaluable truth about children: the games, object lessons, and examples we use in our clubs are life-sized. To us, they seem miniature and easy to overlook, like an adult surveying a field of waist-high grass: easy to see over, barely part of the greater landscape. But to a child, these landmarks are the shoulder-high signposts by which they will find their way, remembering the Bible stories and life lessons, or become completely lost.
When children are taught with examples and object lessons, they remember. Four weeks after a lesson on worship, a child interrupted a battle-to-the-death contest in order to make a point that won the game for her team: “Teacher said that God should be worshiped because He made the Marianas trench and the incredible ocean life that no one can even see!” Uniquely put, but definitely true: He is the Creator and should be worshiped for that! They remember.
Children come to Good News Clubs to play games, they meet Jesus through the Bible stories and object lessons, and years later, they remember. As we reach the children around us with the Gospel, let’s tell it in a way they can remember.
