VBS 2022- Reflections "AWESOME GOD"

WHAT A WEEK! 

    We just concluded our VBS week at Hope Lutheran Church, and I couldn't be more excited, exhausted, blessed, or filled with joy! It is SO rewarding to have to opportunity to work with these kids and see them all get excited for God! But, as I was teaching this week, I thought... what does VBS mean for me? Or, us adults? Each "crew" had adult "crew leaders" and I wondered what they were thinking as they sat through the opening skits, games, crafts, Bible lessons, music... etc. 

    So, I wanted to share a quick recap of this week, but also a devotional on what this week meant to me on my personal walk with Christ!

All of our VBS kiddos and volunteers! We are SO blessed that God has entrusted us with all of these children and families, and all of our wonderful volunteers!!!

    In my teaching so far, one of my favorite feelings is that "a-ha" moment that I GET, when I am teaching. Of course, we strive for students to get this feeling frequently, but sometimes when we are explaining something we "know" over and over again- we come to a deeper realization ourselves... and that my was my experience this week at VBS. 

Each day at VBS had a different saying:

1: God loves you no matter what

2: God is with you everywhere

3: God is in charge

4: God is stronger than anything

5: God is surprising

    Each of these sayings (minus Day 4- which is always about Jesus' resurrection) followed the story of Joseph in the Book of Genesis. A quick recap--- Joseph was 1 of 12 siblings and was his father's favorite. He was given a beautiful coat by his father which fueled the growing jealously of his brothers and then they attempted to get rid of Joseph. They ended up selling him into slavery and he was taken into Egypt where he eventually was thrown in jail for crimes he did not commit. In jail, he made relationships with others and ended up interpreting their dreams which eventually led him to Pharaoh. Pharaoh needed some dreams interpreted himself and found great favor in Joseph, so he put him in charge of helping with the coming famine. In the end, Joseph's family came to Joseph to collect their food, but did not recognize him because it had been a long time! Joseph could have engaged in revenge, but in the end decided to forgive them.

    This story was a perfect story for the kiddos to learn. It speaks of challenges, relationships, and forgiveness (and, it's not too hard to follow, like some of the Bible can be!) But, it also has so much in for us as adults as well. Let me share.

Day 1: God loves you no matter what!

    Let's face it. We all mess up. We royally mess up. We mess up in our relationships. We mess up at work. We don't speak with kindness. We don't care for the world in the way that God desires. We ignore people and their needs. We place ourselves in front of others. We get tired and we stop being thoughtful in our actions. We consciously walk away from Christ, and towards our vices and our sins. 

And yet... 

God loves you no matter what. 

God loves you no matter what... no matter what you did, said, will do, will say- it doesn't, and can't , stop God from loving you anyways. It's a love that is so deep, so cavernous, so powerful, so unstoppable... that NOTHING we can do, can ever separate us from it. Nothing that we can do, can separate us from God; who is love.

It was a powerful reminder for me. In all the times I feel shame, regret, guilt, or like a let down to God... He is still saying "I love you." And those words... transform you and I. We will sin again. We will fall short. We will let God and others down... but, God's love will keep yearning for us, and all the while it will keep transforming us to be more like Christ. Just like Joseph was clothed in a beautiful and colorful coat, God clothes US with beautiful and colorful love... vibrant, costly (yet free), and He calls us beloved. 

God loves us. 

Day 2: God is with you everywhere!

God is for us. God loves us. And, He is also with us. Through the best times, and the worst. The bible lesson was all about Joseph being put in jail, where I am sure that he felt extremely alone. He most certainly felt abandoned by his family... but I can only guess that he felt abandoned by God.

How many times do we feel this way? We feel abandoned by God... We feel like we have been played the fool. When things are going well, we praise God and lift up His Holy name, but when things fall apart- we feel like He has left us... We feel betrayed, and alone, and isolated. For the kids, this was a great lesson for them to understand how to make decisions. They had to contemplate that God was always there with them as they made decisions either right or wrong... and while this is technically true, it leaves a lot of room for judgement. God certainly is our final judgement, but He deals with us not according to our sins and our mistakes, but according to love. 

God sees us in every decision and is with us in every decision... understanding, and guiding, and most of all- loving us. We won't always hit the mark especially when tensions are high- but God is with us, and He is with us IN LOVE, not in punishment. 

We did a silly skit about this subject with the kiddos. Ms. Jill narrated and I tied a heart balloon to my wrist and tried to run away from God. The point was that God, the heart balloon, was going to be sticking with me everywhere I went. If I tried to shake it off, it didn't matter. If I tried to hide the tent, the balloon was still there. 

This, I thought, was a great analogy for God being with us. We can't get rid of Him, and we can't hide from Him either... even though, sometimes we want to hide from God in shame. No matter where you are in your life... whether you are on a mountain top, or in the valley... 

God loves us and is with us. 

^^^ From the song "God is watching over you" 

Day 3: God is in charge!

I struggle with this one... big time. There are two parts of this that I think can be especially challenging. 

1: The ability to let go

2: The ability to trust

I think too often we casually say "God is in charge" and then we go about living our lives as if we were in charge. That reminds me of the old adage... talk is cheap! God is in charge, and part of living into that realization is letting go of our belief in ourselves, and instead, putting that belief in Christ. It is by HIS will that something will happen. It is by HIS will that something else will not. Which brings us to #2...

We have to invest our trust in God and His plans. We have to fully believe with our hearts that God is not haphazardly letting the universe spiral in and out of control, but rather that God is actively orchestrating our lives for His will, according to His plans, and through benevolence. What might seem devastating to us, might not be the entire picture- it might be needed for the fulfillment of God's true purpose in our lives. 

Think about Joseph... he was treated so poorly by his family, and then sold into slavery, and then thrown into jail--- and while he couldn't the end of his story and how it all fit together- WE CAN. We can see that these were all crucial steps in His journey. God is doing that in our lives as well- even though we can't see the end of OUR story. He is reaching into every moment of our lives and helping us grow closer to Him through the ups and the downs.

God loves us, is with us, and He has a plan for our lives. 

Day 4: God is stronger than anything!

I had the opportunity to talk to the kiddos about Jesus and His resurrection on Day 4. I loved the message this year. It started off talking about how Jesus was the light of the world, and how nothing can separate us from God's love--- not even death, because God is stronger than anything!

Do we really believe that? 

Do we really believe that God is stronger than anything?

Is God stronger than our feelings of guilt? Is God stronger than our sorrow? Is God stronger than our cycles of sin that we come back to??? Is God stronger than our busy schedules? Is God stronger than our pride? Is God stronger than our political opinions? Is God stronger than our complacency? 

Living in the natural world, it makes sense that connecting with the supernatural aspects of our God can be intimidating, seemingly inaccessible, and honestly strange. Our humanity is soaked in folly and rooted in sinfulness, so it makes sense that it is easier to relate to the sin and brokenness of the world in comparison to the true love, peace, hope, salvation, and forgiveness that God brings and is. But despite our limitations, God can truly make ANYTHING happen because He is all powerful, and there is nothing that is stronger than Him and His love for us- not even death.

That is why God sent His Son... to reveal His nature, to help us relate to Him, to demonstrate His immense love and faith to us through His supernatural power, and to give us an eternal reminder that NOTHING can separate us from Him. 

God loves us, is with us, has a plan for us, and is strong enough to make it happen. 

Day 5: God is surprising!

Do you still get surprised? I remember when surprises used to be fun, and we all used to get excited for surprises! Surprises now are usually... surprise your bill went up! Or, surprise... your knee is going to stop working for a couple of months! Or, my favorite... surprise you gained 3 lbs between last night and today. HAHA 

Remember when surprises were joyful? When you felt giddy? That's what I saw this week. Kiddos getting excited for each day and each new skit and session! It was all a big surprise for them! WHATS NEXT?! 

Life has a terrible way of burning us... making us cynical... making us tired. We lose our "giddy-ness." We lose our zest! We lose our sense of surprise and can sometimes live life like it is an endless cycle of the same old same old...

We forget that God is still making miracles happen in our lives! AND, even worse... we fail to see the miracles right in front of us!!! 

God is in the business of making the old, new again! He is in the business of creating new paths and inspiring new fires in our souls!!!

Don't underestimate God... He WILL surprise you. He will deliver you. He will renew your soul. He will replenish your passion! He is a vivacious God! A brilliant God! The Way-Maker! The miracle worker! 

When you think... Is God still at work in my life? He is. When you think... there is no way that God has anything left in store for me. HE DOES! Our God is still working miracles day in and day out. Put your faith in Jesus... and see the miracles He has for you. 

God loves us, is with us, has a plan for us, and the strength to make it happen, and will bless us with surprising miracles along the way. 

AMEN!

Aside from all of that I had a couple of favorite moments from this week that I wanted to quickly share

1: God Sightings! These are times in which we see evidence of God. It could be through God's beautiful creation, or caring people, or thoughtful actions- anything like that. Well, we had a couple of kids who were super kind and thoughtful this week who held open doors, and picked up trash all around while other kids played- and all kinds of beautiful stuff! THAT is what we need more of in this world!

2: I loved all of the energy that we had at VBS this year! I LOVED hearing the kiddos scream their music! "GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS!!!" They were jumping and singing and smiling and laughing. That brought such joy to my heart.

3: I really enjoyed seeing some of the kids from last year's VBS be teen crew leaders! I remember last year, some of the those kiddos didn't want to participate because it "wasn't cool" HAHA. But this year... they were SUCH great role models for the kiddos at VBS! They were doing all the moves and singing and they really lived into that role model energy. It was beautiful.

4: I got to spend this time at VBS with my new fam!!! It was a lot of fun to be together in Christ!!!

Last but not least, I wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who made VBS happen!

1: Ms. Jill our Director of Family and Youth Ministry and her teams of insanely passionate Hope members! These teams created all the decorations, planned the stations, and led every single station for the kiddos. There would be no VBS without them!!! 

2: Our Hope staff for their support! 

3: Our volunteers who helped be with the kiddos every single day! 

4: Ms. Lauren for making our VBS video, and Ms. Christy for taking all the beautiful pictures!!!

Video is here: https://youtu.be/gszHt2aTnB8    CHECK IT OUT! :) 

My prayer for us:

    Gracious and merciful God, we thank you for loving us even when we act in ways that are unloveable. We celebrate this love that saves us and calls us home to be full and satisfied in You. God, we are so thankful that You go with us where we go, guiding us along our path in this lifetime, and doing it all through grace and compassion, not judgement and condemnation. Lord, we know You have a plan for us... even when we can't see it all- we put our faith in Your benevolence, and not in our own incomplete understanding. God we thank you for being strong when we are weak, and we pray that You fill us with Your strength when we are feeling vulnerable to sin... lead us to You, God... and away from turmoil. Lastly God, we thank you still being active and alive in our lives... providing miracles on miracles for us and inspiring us to be the miracles in someone else's life all for Your glory. We could never deserve even a sliver of what You give us- but we are forever grateful. God, we pray that You abundantly bless our children than attended VBS this year... we thank you for blessing us with their presence and joy, and we pray that You continue to entrust us with them. God... thank you for being who You who are... a loving and strong God who will never leave us, never forsake us, who has a plan for us, and who is still making miracles happen in our lives. 

Amen!