I have graduated…

…from Children’s Moments to Sunday School!!  It’s only temporary, but I have been asked to do the Sunday-schooling for the kids at my church for a few weeks!!

Keep me in your prayers if you think about it, and maybe even wish me luck!!

 

“A Series of Unfortunate Events”

So - I do these little “Children’s Moments” at church every once in while, and although they’re geared towards children, they’re usually a hit with the older crowd as well.  The congregation seemed to enjoy this one particularly, and I hope that you do, too!  (If it sounds simplistic, just remember that it’s written for the 10 and under crowd - they’re not stupid, by any means, but they learn differently than adults, and I don’t like to overwhelm them with information). 

For anyone who has read Mr. Lemony Snicket’s “A Series of Unfortunate Events,” or has seen the movie, you know all about Count Olaf, and how miserable he makes the lives of the Beaudelaire orphans.  It’s bad enough that these poor children lose their parents, and all of their lovely possessions in a fire that burns their house to the ground.  But now that they’re orphaned, they have Count Olaf to worry about.  Count Olaf, by the way, is after their parents’ fortune, and he is relentless.  The guy wants that money bad, and will go to any lengths to get it. 

The Beaudelaires are forced to live with Olaf for a while, as he is their “closest living relative.”  During their stay in his filthy, run-down mansion, he makes them cook, and clean, and share one rickety bed.  Olaf even tries to arrange a marriage to Violet, the eldest Beaudelaire, to get the money.  Something ends up happening (I won’t ruin it for you), and the children are taken away from this monster, but he follows them to Uncle Monty’s, the next “closest relative,” and does something horrible to Uncle Monty.  The pattern is set, and continues. 

I got to thinking, that although VERY sad, these books represent chapters of our lives.  Life sometimes seems like one big Lemony Snicket story.  Difference is, it usually ends more pleasantly.  The stories in the Bible can seem pretty bleak, but God does His thing, and everything’s okay. 

 

Take for example Naomi, in the Book of Ruth.  Naomi loses her husband and two sons, but is left with her two daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah.  She tells the two of them to go back to their people and find new husbands to take care of themselves, not to worry about her - she’s old, and likely won’t be able to find anyone to take care of her this late in life, and doesn’t want to burden Ruth and Orpah. 

 

Orpah does as Naomi tells her to do, but Ruth refuses, and says to Naomi,  “Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.” 

 

So, so far out of her tragedy, Naomi has a pretty good friend to take care of her, don’t you think?  We could all use a friend like Ruth, and I know that I could be a lot more like her when facing a bad situation - I could worry lots less about myself, and focus more on taking care of others. 

 

Ruth ends up meeting a kind man named Boaz, who marries her, and generously takes care of Naomi as well.  So, it looks like Naomi wasn’t so bad off after all.  Yes, she lost her husband and her two sons, which is very sad, but out of that loss came a great friendship with a wonderful woman named Ruth.

 

Another, BIG example of something “bad” turning into something good is the Virgin Mary’s pregnancy with baby Jesus.  I say that Mary’s pregnancy started out as a “bad” thing, because it’s not really a good thing for a woman to be pregnant and unmarried, but in Biblical times it was even worse - the woman could be put to death.  So here Mary was, a teenager, pregnant, and maybe a little scared of what people might think of her. 

 

But this situation ended up being MORE than okay - Joseph, the man that Mary was supposed to marry, believed in her, and they did end up getting married.  And, as I am sure you all know, Mary gave birth to Jesus, our Lord.  I’d say that that’s a pretty GOOD thing, wouldn’t you? 

 

The point I’m trying to make is that sometimes life is pretty crummy.  We have bad days, and we have days that make you think that things couldn’t get any worse, and then they do.  Those are the days that we have to cling to God even tighter, and know that He is looking out for us, and that maybe, just maybe, he’s using a string of unfortunate events to accomplish something very wonderful.