This summer, our curriculum is entitled The Everlasting Kingdom. Besides being good material for many fun themed activities (think jousting with pool noodles, colourful flags, and other medieval era-based diversions), it can at times feel a bit archaic.
However, what is wonderful about working with children is their vivid imagination that allows them to inhabit stories - and the story we want to invite them to claim as their own is the story of the King and the kingdom that humans have rejected. It is the story of our revolt against God in which we enslaved ourselves to false rulers. It is the story of how the rightful King, the rescuing, loving, just King came back to free us and restore us to His everlasting kingdom, despite our rebellion.
"This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain - first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it because the harvest has come." - Mark 4: 26-29
His kingdom is established by His work, His might, and His initiative. As we teach the kids during the summer, this passage is a reminder of the growing reality of that kingdom as well as my own inability to make His kingdom happen. But by His grace, we are called to be messengers with good news, proclaiming the certainty of a redeemed world and its loving ruler, and inviting our kids to enter in.