LESSONS LEARNED IN SUNDAY SCHOOL
By An 8-Year-Old Boy
Who Grew Up In Church
(MARY E. ADAMS)
I must behave myself in church. No chewing gum. No talking. No restlessness. No sleeping, No squirming about. I will be required to dress up. Bring my Bible. I will just be a child and watch. So I watched. Lots of older people there.
Some were very friendly...even talked to me. Some passed me by and never did. Some smiled a lot. But some had faces like Scrooge...I shuddered when I looked at them. They didn't seem very happy to be here. Some just spoke to special ones they liked.
When church began, we rose to sing some songs. Some sang very strongly...but some never sang at all. Some put their hands in the air. I wondered why? Some closed their eyes...and I wondered why again?
Then when the singing finished, lots of people went around greeting each other...again.
I noticed an old man in the back of the church...he didn't have a lot of people saying hi to him. And there were some new folks I never saw before...they didn't get talked to either. But there was lots of laughing and hugging going on. But not many hugged me....I was too young.
Then a lady got up to sing. She couldn't sing very good, but she kinda cried when she did it, and that made it good. But I heard whispering going on, and they were saying she didn't do very good and she shouldn't have sung anyway as she was bad and they blamed the Pastor. My parents had told me we should respect the Pastor.
When all of this was over, then he talked some more. Then they took up the money we were supposed to bring with us. And then the Pastor preached. He told about Jesus.
I like stories about Him. This one was when these people brought a woman to Him that they wanted to throw rocks at. She had done something very bad. And Jesus said to them, "If you never did anything bad yourself, then you throw the rocks first". Well, every one of them started thinking about it. Then Jesus got down on the ground and started writing in the dirt. The Pastor said what he wrote might have said, "lying, stealing, cheating, telling false things about somebody, not loving, not forgiving".
And one by one those people left. And then it was just Jesus and that bad woman. He told her, "Where are the people who wanted to throw rocks at you? I don't want to...I don't think of you as bad...I don't condemn you. Just go and don't do bad again". Wow! That was a neat story! And he also said that from that time on, this naughty woman became one of His disciples and followed Him all the time He was out preaching and healing people. I think her name was Mary.
But that particular Sunday I was puzzled. As the preacher told that story, lots of people got up and left for some reason. I mean, they looked mad and angry. Mom and Dad didn't tell me why, even when I asked. But I never saw them again. They just never came back to our church. Kinda like those people who left in that story the Pastor told.
I did hear some of the others talking and discussing it. That they thought the Pastor was throwing rocks at them, and some others said they didn't like it because there were people they didn't like in the church and the Pastor wouldn't throw stones at them. And they said he was not a good pastor and a bad preacher. But he was always shaking my hand and talking to me...he even knew my first name.
I wondered about this for a long, long time. I couldn't figure it out. Because a lot of those people who left were the same ones who seemed so happy and smiled a lot, raised their hands and closed their eyes, and were always hugging and shaking hands with one another...except with me, and that old man... and those new people...and the woman who sang. But I am glad we stayed to find out what Jesus would do. It made me not throw rocks so much anymore...
DEAR READER: Thank you for taking the time to read this. If it has ministered hope, encouragement or insight to you in any way, would you please take the time to send Mary Adams a quick E-mail at meamin@mtaonline.net and share the blessing with her? She would love to hear from you!
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