A Brave and Humble Woman

We started our story by not introducing Jesus: we just put our "traditional" white vest on the one male present & immediately everyone knew who he was supposed to be. Yes, that was a problem Jesus had when He was on earth. Everyone recognized Him, and wanted to hear Him preach, or ask Him for healing. Sometimes He & His disciples got so busy they didn't have time to eat! So they went together to the country of the Phoenicians for a "getaway." (The reason for His going is not given in Scripture; I give this as a possibility. If Jesus could fall asleep in a boat during a storm, for example, He must have gotten extremely tired sometimes. He talks about knowing when power has gone out of Him, when the hemorrhaging woman touched Him. Did He need to rest and restore His strength for His miracles? Is that perhaps why He was reluctant to heal the Syrophoenician woman's daughter, and possibly open Himself up to more demands, leaving Him unready for the needs of the Jews? All speculation, I admit. But I found it helpful when I was studying the story & hoped others might too.)

Anyway, escaping to this other country didn't help after all, because at least one woman recognized who He was and wanted Him to deliver her daughter from a demon. The Mark version of the story has Jesus and His disciples in a house; the Matthew account sounds like they are out of doors. So we put both in the story. First the woman came and knocked on the "door" where Jesus and a few disciples were sitting drinking tea. One of the disciples goes and answers the door, shoos her away, and comes back and tells Jesus it was just someone knocking on the wrong door. Then the next day they were out walking and the woman starts yelling for Jesus to help her. The disciples say, get rid of her. But Jesus does nothing, either to help her or to send her away. Finally she throws herself at his feet and begs for His help. We had Jesus kneel down and gently explain, if I help you, what would stop all your neighbors from looking for my help? I'm really supposed to be here for the Jews, you know. Spending my time helping people here would be like taking the children's food and letting the dogs eat it, and that wouldn't be right, would it? The woman responds, yes, but even the dogs get to eat the crumbs from the children's table. (In other words, call me a dog, I don't care, just heal my daugahter!) Jesus is moved by her humility and her bold faith, and grants her request.

We followed the "dog" theme for game and craft time. We crumbled up cookies on small plates and had the kids lap up the crumbs like a dog. The adults all ended up trying it too; partly to help persuade one reluctant girl, partly just for the fun of it. It was quite humorous, we all got crumbs on our noses and chins!

Then we made these little dogs out of toilet paper rolls.