I thought Mrs. Lei did an exceptionally good job at leading the story today. Unfortunately several people were too late to see it and a couple of others were too busy chatting to watch the skit, so it didn't get the attention it deserved. We had almost enough kids to play all the roles; Bruce ended up playing Jesus. He, Simon, and two others sat around a table set with bowls and chopsticks, all with their feet off to the side up on stools. (All except 2-year-old Marco whose legs were too short—ha). Then we introduced this woman who wished she could invite Jesus for a meal, but her home--and her life--were too messy. But as she looked longingly at the feasting, she noticed that for all Simon's righteousness, he didn't know how to treat a guest. She could see Jesus feet and they were DIRTY! So she went right in and started rubbing his feet with some lotion (anti-bacterial hand sanitizer—she didn't actually put it on, as Bruce kept his socks on). She started to cry over the privilege of doing this for him, and then she wanted to dry them and all she had was her hair, so she used that. All this time Simon is looking at her like she is something the cat dragged in, but it's interesting that he never orders her out—just sits there and passes mental judgment on Jesus for letting her touch him! Jesus abruptly stands up and says he has something to tell Simon. He says, lets say your two friends here owe you money, one $500 and one $50. (We gave them signs to hold with these amounts.) Neither one can afford to pay you back, so you cancel their debts. (Simon rips up the signs.) Which one would love you more after that? Simon says, the one who owed the most. Jesus agrees and says, you are pretty righteous, so you don't love me very much. But this woman loves me very much, because she knows she is a sinner and needs the forgiveness I bring. Then He turns to the woman and says, don't cry, your sins are forgiven. Go in peace.
Simon didn't know how to treat his guests (I mistakenly used the word "tourists" for "guests" when I introduced this game—oops!); it's also important as a guest to treat your host or hostess properly. To practice this, we played "visiting Grandma." One adult was Grandma and sat next to a table with a tea set and a tin of cookies. Each child in turn had to great Grandma by title, kiss her on the cheek, sit down, pour tea, use both hands to give Grandma a cup of tea, and then ask her how she was doing. When they did it all right, Grandma would open the tin and give them a cookie. Again, lots of distracting chatting going on between the adults while the game was going on. Which was too bad, because some of the kids that don't always speak well did a great job & they deserved to be noticed! Sigh.
Craft time was an easy choice: this woman showed her love for Jesus by anointing His feet, which is not the way most of us are going to show love for anyone! A more typical way would be giving them a card—such as for Valentine's Day! I found this great bunny valentine in a craft book; perfect for the Year of the Rabbit!
In spite of the lack of attention during the joint activities, Bruce said the adult Bible study went really well, with more participation from our non-believers than usual! Thank the Lord for what only He can do!!
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