God Knows our Hearts

To illustrate this truth we went back to Samuel’s anointing of David, which we had purposely skipped in the previous unit.  We introduced King Saul, in crown, and holding a 福 character (meaning blessings).  The Lord had blessed Saul, but Saul’s heart was not pure toward God, so he was no longer under God’s blessing:  A very dramatic angel in a halo flew in and plucked the  福 character out of his hands and tore it up.  God was going to let him continue as king, but then the line would pass to another: we displayed a hypothetical dynasty chart, listing a sequence of kings as Saul I, Saul II, Saul III, Saul IV; one of the kids came and crossed out Sauls II-IV and traced a faint arrow pointing to a large question mark representing the unknown new dynasty.

So: at that time, Samuel was still the chief prophet in Israel.  The angel comes to him and says he is to go anoint the next king.  He is afraid, but the angel pushes him on his way.  He goes to Bethlehem and invites Jesse to eat with him.  They sit down with bowls and chopsticks.  Samuel asks Jesse if he has any sons.  He goes and gets one and sticks a #1 sticker on him.  Samuel thinks, what a handsome, strong young man; surely he is God’s choice!  But God is not looking on the outward appearance, but on the heart: the angel stands up behind son #1 and gestures, “No, no!”  So Samuel asks if Jesse has any more sons, and we are introduced to sons #2-7, all of which the angel rejects.  Samuel is confused!  He asks, are these all of your sons?  Well, there is one more, but he’s just a kid, out watching the sheep while we eat.  Samuel says, but we’re not eating until I meet him.  So David is introduced and the angel gives the thumbs up sign.  So Samuel pours an (empty) bottle of oil on his head and says, “God bless you.”

God knows everything: how much do YOU know, was our game.  Before our morning started, we had put up papers of different shapes & colors, with numbers, letters, Chinese and English words on them.  Each child got several chances to play by drawing a paper out of a bag and having to look around the room and find that shape, color, number, letter, or word.  Tested some attention and perseverance as well as knowledge.

Craft time reflected David’s having been out watching the sheep.  We painted glue on a half-sheet of paper (on all but the “water” part already colored in), and first stuck on a little paper shepherd, then shredded green paper for grass.  Small cotton balls dipped into the glue went on for sheep, and then little stickers with sheep faces were stuck on to the cotton balls.  Everyone seemed to really enjoy making these.

 I was in with the kids for free play time during the Bible study.  I was trying to help one of our more “ clueless” kids stack some legos, which I thought he had finally learned, but he was not having a good day.  I gave up, but 13-year-old Melissa persevered and worked with him for quite a while.  I am so impressed with her patience and so glad she attends our church!