This morning after church a woman approached me and recounted a conversation she had just had with my 5 year old. I appreciate her willingness to tell me the details of their talk.
Following the children's hour she had asked my son a few questions about the lessons they had learned.
My son proceeded to tell her that they talked about the Good Samaritan.
"Oh," she continued, "and what did you learn from that story?"
"That we should help others," was my son's reply.
"And how can you help others," she carefully pressed.
"Well, I don't have any sick people in my neighbourhood," my boy noted. (Isn't this interestingly related to the lawyer's question that initiated this parable from Christ: "and who is my neighbour?" My boy, like the lawyer, was not seeing the needy people in his life... much like the pharisees and self-righteous people of Christ's audience).
So the woman, concerned that my son understand the biblical application of the lesson, probed a little further, "How about your brother? What if he fell or something? Could you help him?"
To which my son responded, "Oh, he can get up himself."
He can get up himself??? Clearly, my son was not registering that he could be like the Samaritan and LOOK for needy people to help.
"Hmm," I thought when she finished telling me about their dialogue. "I guess we'll have to review this lesson some more this week."
I am so thankful that this woman stopped to talk to my son. This shows that she truly cares about him and about his spiritual growth. It challenges me to interact with the children of our church in a more meaningful way. I was glad that I knew where my first lesson would be during bible time tomorrow.
Later in the afternoon, my husband, not knowing of my conversation with this woman, also talked to my son about the Sunday School hour. This time my son explained how the lesson was about loving others and continued to explain how he could do this.
"Like, I could help my brother if he got hurt when he fell down," were his exact words.
"He got it! He learned the lesson!" I thought, excitedly.
However, it wasn't in the classroom that he had learned the point (though the seeds were planted there). Thanks to this woman's sensitive questions and intuitive leading towards applying biblical truth (coupled with the Holy Spirit's guiding), my son did grasp the lesson being taught today.
Let this be a challenge to all of us to STOP and TALK to the children around us. We just may be God's instrument to help them figure out the things of God. And who knows? Maybe that's our way of being a "good samaritan."
