Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“At that time Jesus said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants.’”
NL Daily Devotion for Tuesday, March 1, 2022
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Kids are amazing theologians. I used to sit down with a group of kids as young as first graders and write skits with them. We’d read a text together, I’d unpack it a bit for them, and then I’d ask them if there was any place or time in their own lives it relates to. Sometimes it was like pulling teeth. Other times, they stunned me with their insight about where they saw Jesus and could enter into the story. Probably the most profound was the time we were looking at Jesus’ crucifixion between the two thieves. I asked the kids if they’d ever experienced or witnessed bullying or humiliation and almost in unison, a group of about seven kids said: “On the school bus.” Whoa. (No wonder my kids hated the bus.) And here it was a way for the kids to relate in some small way to what Jesus endured, and recognize the lengths he went to out of profound love for us.
If you ever want a fresh theological perspective about something, ask a kid. Sometimes they just “get” things we adults bury under layers of over-intellectualization, preconception, ego, and the need to control. And sometimes the answer really is as simple as “Jesus loves you.”
What’s the most insightful thing I’ve ever learned from a kid?