Seen and Unseen

Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved.

Ephesians 2 : 4-5

It was Charlene's turn to teach the K-2nd grade Sunday School Class yesterday, my turn to be the helper. The lesson suggested a sprouting seed be used to show the work that goes on underground that we can't see.
The work of the Holy Spirit.
Charlene said she knew right away what she would use, one of the many oak tree seedlings that sprout up in her yard. When she showed it to the kids it was wrapped up in a wet paper towel in a zip lock bag and all you could see of were two unassuming leaves on a scraggly stem...not too much to look at. But when she took it out of the bag and unwrapped the folds of paper towel, the mat of roots coming out of a perfectly shaped acorn was the surprise. Not at all like the roots of a vegetable or flower seed that are weak and easily broken but sturdy wood roots ready to support a strong long standing tree. One of the kids asked if it could be planted again. I responded," That is called transplanted".
Charlene looked up at me and I looked at the little girl sitting next to me and she said go with it. Yesterday was the little girl's last Sunday at our church because God has called her family to a new area....and God is transplanting her. I hadn't been emotional about this family leaving our church even though they are our Small Group leaders/co-leaders and her mom taught the boys piano for two and a half years and they lead worship and the song he sung on my first visit to our church is what encouraged me to come back for a second visit. I couldn't make it through the whole transplant explanation/analogy without choking up and then that was it for the rest of the morning, tears here, tears there, tears everywhere...what a mess.

The rest of the lesson was really good and the verse at the beginning of this post reminded me of something I thought about during that lesson. Charlene was explaining to the children the great divide between everyone since Adam and God. That God can't look at sin.
Then I thought about how Jesus came to live with those same sinners God couldn't have a relationship with and He talked with them and went to their house. What grace. Then he suffered for those same sinners that didn't even believe him for people who weren't even born yet.