Wednesday, June 23, 2010

crafts for the Gospel of John revisited

This next part is more for you than for kids... I was rethinking John for kids. "In the beginning was the Word..." Thinking about crafts for kids I realized that I usually think visual, maybe tactile. Thinking about games/activities I think movement - kinesthetic. Thinking about worship and music I think auditory (expressing what is true in me at the time and what is true about God despite what is true in me).

But Genesis opens with a spoken word - something auditory. That spoken word sets in motion the creation of the whole physical world as we know it. Jesus stilled the storm (changed the weather & his immediate environment) with a few spoken words. He cast out demons and changed a person's life with a spoken word. I'm not adept w/the Hebrew language or the Hebrew culture but I know they had spoken language and I know they had written language and I know that saying and writing God's name was not allowed or at least that's the way I understand it.

Jesus was/is the Living Word - a multi-sensory human being and God who is Spirit & Truth. He came & lived among us but we didn't control Him. We are, however, supposed to control our words...What does God say about His Word and what does God say about our words?

So how many different forms can "word" take? What does it mean to us as believers? God speaks and He creates. Our words bless, our words curse. They build up. They tear down. They start fires - good & bad.

When is a "word" something concrete? When is it abstract?

What can you do with kids & words? Readers? Non-readers? Speakers? Non-speakers? Hearing? Non-hearing? Seeing? Non-seeing? Think about it.

How do your senses affect what a word means to you? How about emotional memory and association? Play with it. What can you do with kids & words?

Word & light...We hear, touch, smell, taste in the dark but you can't see in the dark until your eyes adjust and even then we don't see the way we do when the lights come on.

No comments:

Post a Comment