Blessed are the Poor in Spirit

Starting our unit on the Beatitudes. We explained that the parables we’d just finished learning were “made up” by Jesus to illustrate certain truths. But to illustrate each beatitude, we would use historical, true stories from the Bible.

The first story was about King Nebuchadnezzar, a man who needed to learn how to be poor in spirit.

We told how the Israelites had been so disobedient that God had to punish the whole nation by sending them into exile to Babylon. (“soldier” with sword drives everyone once around the room) Among them was a young man named Daniel (baseball cap) who loved God, but had to be exiled along with everyone else. The king of Babylon, a very powerful man, had a dream one night that was very troubling. He “told” the dream: He saw a huge tree (on flannel board). It bore lots of luscious fruit (kids stick flannel fruit on tree). All sorts of animals rested in its shade (kids stick on animals), and birds nested in its branches (kids stick on birds). But then an angel of the Lord appeared (child with halo) and said, cut down this tree! (Angel pulls off tree & sticks on stump). It is going to sit uncared for in the field for 7 periods of time, until it knows that God is the one in charge of the world!

Well, the king wanted to know what this dream meant, so he asked everyone. Daniel says, I know! He says, I am sorry to say this, but you are the tree, and God is going to cut you down and you will be abandoned by everyone for 7 periods of time, until you learn that God is in charge, not you. Daniel begs the king to acknowledge God now, and perhaps avoid this punishment. But the king just thanks him for his explanation.

A year goes by and nothing happens, so the king has forgotten all about the dream by now. But has God forgotten? No! So, one day the king is walking on the roof of his palace and exclaiming over how wonderful he is to have made Babylon so great. The angel appears and says, “That’s enough, King Nebuchadnezzar! You are going to be punished until you learn that God is the one who makes nations great!”

Immediately the king has something like a stroke and loses his mind. He is driven away from the palace (by the soldier), and lives out in the field. He has to eat grass like an ox (shredded seaweed). His hair (a mophead) and his nails (some great gorilla fingers I found at a dollar store not long before Halloween) grow grotesquely long.

Finally after seven years, he is restored to his right mind. Right away he acknowledges that God is indeed in control. And he is restored to his kingdom.

Our game was called, “How long until the tree falls?” We put a “tree” (some fake flowers in a vase) in the middle of a large cardboard circle laid atop about 15 building blocks. Kids took turns pulling blocks out from under the circle with a pair of tongs, trying not to be the one who made the tree fall. Played it twice.

For craft time (or “handwork”), we talked about how Nebuchadnezzar’s nails grew long because no one took care of them. But that some ladies grow theirs long on purpose, and paint them to look pretty. So the kids painted their mom’s nails.

There weren’t quite enough moms to go around, so I got my fingernails painted too. Wing Yan was convinced she was supposed to paint my FINGERS, so I helped as best I could to confine the polish to my nails. Good thing, too. I had bought a variety of tiny sample bottles, and the one she chose was full of glitter, which did not want to come off even with lavish application of polish remover. Still can see traces of it six days later!

I got to lead the Bible study again. A highlight for me was when we acknowledged that most of us are not quite so proud as King Nebuchadnezzar; by contrast we often feel stupid, useless, helpless, etc. I asked, so according to this truth that Jesus was trying to teach, do we need to overcome these things before we can enter the kingdom of heaven? One woman—one who usually doesn’t say a word—immediately spoke up and said, yes, we do. I said, a lot of people think that’s true, but what does this Bible verse say? Does it say, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, because when they overcome their poor self-esteem they can belong to the kingdom of heaven?” No! Jesus wants us to know that even though we might feel stupid and unlovely, we are still blessed, because He does love us, and welcomes us into His kingdom. Everyone got real quiet all of a sudden. “Salvation by grace” suddenly became a little more wonderful than they’d realized, I think. Precious moment!