Glitter, Glue, & Goldfish

You are one of the hundreds of Children's Ministry volunteers, and you feel like you do the same thing every weekend.  You enter your room, pull out the crafts and goldfish crackers, and try your best to keep the kids' attention.  For the whole service time you feel like you're maintaining order, picking up smashed goldfish, and drying tears.

Some weekends are good; some are so repetitious that you wonder if you're making a difference in the kids' lives.  Do you feel like any of this really matters to God, or do you feel like you're just surviving away the weekends until you get to heaven?  Does God actually care about glitter, glue, and goldfish?

Actually, He does.  Very much.  In our Preschool programming, we have recently studied how God is Creator, and now are learning about how God created man and woman in His image.  As I was preparing for these units, I was reminded of who our Creator is, how we were created, and what our response should be.

• Genesis 1:1 --> God creates.  Light splits the darkness, order emerges, and it is good.  We have an energetic, creative, ordering God.
• Genesis 1:26-27 --> God makes man in His image.  We are made in the image of a creative, ordering God.  Humanity is given a mandate:  take dominion over the earth, cultivate it, take care of it.  We are to imitate our creative, ordering God.

Here is the connection to glitter, glue and goldfish.  When we serve, create, and keep order in our classrooms, we are imitating our God.  God loves to see His creatures imitating Him.  You're not just "babysitting" the kids; you are fulfilling the creation mandate (command), which pleases God.  You're not merely doing crafts; you're actually imitating the creativity of God.

When we imitate God in front of the kids, we are setting a model for them to follow.  Greater things are at stake than smashed goldfish and soggy diapers.  The glory of God is at stake.

Remember, dear volunteer, that each weekend you serve isn't just another weekend.  It's an opportunity.  It's an opportunity to imitate and glorify our God, our Creator.  Don't waste it!

-- Val Gutschow, Children's Ministry Coordinator