Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Andrew Hight
Family Ministry Coordinator

“You can recover from anything. Your resilience is unmatched.”
This was the affirmation I pulled from a deck of cards last Thursday. Several years ago, a good friend gifted me this set of 50 affirmation cards, each with a short message designed to boost self-confidence and self-worth. As much as I appreciated the message, the timing couldn’t have been more uncanny—I was heading into the weekend preparing a Sunday school lesson on that very word: resilience. Perhaps it was just a coincidence... or perhaps not.

After leaving the sanctuary on Sunday morning, the kids learned about the story of Lazarus and encountered the shortest verse in the Bible: “Jesus wept.”

One child commented, “It’s weird to think of Jesus as someone who cried.” Fair enough. We’d just spent the last month focused on Christmas lessons, stories full of hope, joy, and love—a baby Jesus lying peacefully in a manger, surrounded by his parents and barn animals. This is a far cry from that Jesus, this is a Jesus three years into his ministry in tears over the death of a close friend.

But here’s the thing: Christmas, at its core, is about the incarnation. Every Christmas Eve, we sing, “Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing.” Jesus is a human being, with human emotions and human experiences.

As big as the word resilience may seem, the message I want to share with the kids throughout January is simple: it’s okay to feel your emotions. It’s okay to be sad, angry, happy, or overwhelmed. It’s okay to cry or smile. What matters is that we allow ourselves to feel these emotions and trust that God is with us in every moment.

This coming week, we’ll continue the theme. In these unpredictable times, the core message for this upcoming Sunday’s lesson speaks to all of us:

“Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:34

I was intentional in selecting the hymns to precede the kids' time this month, and I could think of nothing more appropriate before a lesson on not worrying than the beloved hymn, "His Eye Is on the Sparrow." This hymn encourages us to find joy and resilience through faith in God’s constant presence.

Life is messy. Life is emotional. Life is unpredictable. I want all of you to remember:
“You can recover from anything. Your resilience is unmatched.”

Warm regards,
Andrew Hight | Family Ministry Coordinator