On Monday morning I was at the Pram Service. It was a happy time with the little children, the simple songs with plenty of percussion, prayers and stories, then activities and snacks. There were 2 year olds and babies with parents and grandparents.
The theme was about sharing and based on the harvest that we had celebrated on Sunday.
The story was of the little boy who gave his lunch to Jesus to share with a huge crowd of 5000 and then later on the story of The Enormous Turnip and how hard it was to get it pulled out of the ground until lots of different people of all ages and their dog and the cat and finally the mouse pulled and pulled and pulled. Then they all shared in the food together.
They all had different strengths and attributes but together they eventually managed the task. And the smallest one was essential to the successful outcome.
So we thought about seeds growing into food, folk working together to get the harvest and sharing what we have with others.
Sometimes, being a follower of Jesus can seem too complicated, too huge a task in today’s world but we are told to have faith like a little child and get on together with what is laid before us in our families, with our friends and neighbours and where we can for those across the world, knowing that Jesus is with us to the end of time; he takes our efforts even if they seem too small to us and uses them to achieve so much more than we can know.
This is the prayer we said together at the end of the service and the picture shows some of the little ‘plant pots’ the children made. (The straws push the flowers up through the pot so they ‘grow’.)
Dear Father,
Let us be grateful for the food that we have.
Remind us to always say thank you that we have warm clothes, safe houses and nice food to eat.
Let us also remember that not everyone is as lucky as us and that it is our duty to help them with compassion.
Amen