Children's Time - Blowing a Dandelion Clock (May 5, 2013) & Jessie and the children's responses

Blowing A Dandelion Clock

Today I brought some dandelion clocks for you.

Hmm....I wonder how these dandelion clocks can help us to understand the Bible story today.

In today’s story, the Easter celebration is coming to an end. Jesus says to his disciples that he is going away, soon, … to be with God the Father forever.

 

Have you ever had a friend move away? How did that feel (lonely, sacred, angry) Does it still feel sometimes like your friend is still with you? What are some of the things you can do to remember your friend? 

What you have said is all how the disciples felt when they heard Jesus was going to leave them to be with God.  

When the good news of Easter came that Jesus was alive, they were so happy, thinking that Jesus would live with them, stay with them in a new way, maybe forever. They just got used to living with Risen Jesus. They even had a campfire breakfast on the beach, early in the morning, with the risen Jesus - the charcoaled fish and toasted bread - . Do you remember that story?

Then came the time when Jesus said he was going to be with God and they would not see him anymore.

But Jesus also said, “Don't be sad. Be glad. I am with you. Always. Everywhere. God will send you God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit, in my name, and She will teach you everything. God's spirit will be with you just as God's spirit has been with you. I am with you, always, everywhere.”

I wonder how this can happen; how Jesus went away to be with God, and is with us, and in us, always, everywhere. How do you think it can happen? (Some answers from the children)

It turns out that the answers I got from the children were truly exceptional and amazing which surprised many in the church including myself. One of the answers I loved dearly was "because we get bits of Jesus?" 
Right after the Children's Time, Jessie stood up and expressed how much he was deeply inspired by the spirituality of the little children, and thanked me as a minister and Alice (Sunday School teacher) and all for nurturing them in faith and spirit. 

It is God’s mystery, but the amazing thing is that sometimes nature can teach us wisdom.

Look at this dandelion clock (props…) and the seeds.

As a clock, the seeds are one, but as many, they are ready to fly when they are blown away. Mostly, the wind blows them off naturally, but sometimes we do. When the wind blows or we blow them “hard”,

(with the prop; blow it hard!)

the clock is no more, but the seeds fly everywhere and land everywhere.

When Jesus says he is going to be with God, it sounds like Jesus is no longer with the disciples, no longer with us. But the truth is it is not that Jesus is no longer with us. It is that Jesus is in us, around us, and beyond us, everywhere.

Jesus is the clock. The seeds are the Holy Spirit. When you hold the dandelion clock, Jesus is in you. But when you blow it, the seeds float over our shoulders, around our feet, and beyond us, carried by the wind and flying to the farthest corner of the earth. 

When you find dandelion clocks, remember to pray;  Jesus is in me, always.

(hold the unblown dandelion clock in hands, in front of my chest…)

Jesus is everywhere, always.