John the Baptist and the Return from Lockdown
There are so many occasions where the sensory story we’ve run on a particular week feels coincidently relevant to my life or to something happening in the wider world. The story of John the Baptist might be my favourite example of this. We ran this story in September 2020 on the first week which we were able to meet after over six months of churches been closed due to covid-19 restrictions. Our mainstream children’s and youth ministries were both studying Mark that term so I searched that gospel for something which might lend itself to being turned into a sensory story. John the Baptist with his honey and locust-based snacks, his itchy clothes and straggly hair and his connection to water seemed to fit the bill.
I was so excited to be able to come back to church in person
and to be able to share Bible stories with the children and young people in our
group once again. We were aware of how difficult the preceding months had been
for those with additional needs and their families and it felt wonderful to be
able to serve them in person again. I also felt that my experience of the
gospel and of church had been poorer for this lack of being able to engage with
the Bible in a tangible and interactive way. Not only have the stories we’ve
shared often felt relevant but they’ve always felt encouraging and helpful to
me too. They’ve helped to deepen my knowledge of the Bible and to increase my
wonder of God’s great gospel story. This was certainly true in the case of John
the Baptist.
The story of John the Baptist comes after a long time of
inactivity in the Bible story. Prophecies had been made in the Old Testament about
a messiah who would come and restore God’s people to a right relationship with
Him, but the prophets had been quiet for over 400 years by the time John the
Baptist appears. John the Baptist coming and pointing people to Jesus, the good
King promised in the Old Testament come to save his people is a far greater
climax to a time of waiting than the reopening of churches after covid-19
restrictions. But experiencing this time of waiting and longing and then deep
diving into and sharing this story reminded me that waiting is part of the
gospel experience. It helped me to focus on what I’m really waiting and hoping
for Jesus the good King returning to save his people and restore us to a right
relationship with God. It reminded me to that I have ‘Johns’ in my life, people
who have told me or are still telling me about Jesus and I’m thankful for them.
Not only this but I can be a ‘John’ too, we all can, telling people about Jesus
and helping them to know Him better. This story tells us too that anyone can be
part of the gospel story, anyone can be used by God. John the Baptist was
unusual in many ways, the circumstances of his conception, his appearance
(those itchy clothes and that straggly hair), and his itinerant lifestyle, not
to mention his unusual diet! So we can and we should share the gospel with
anyone regardless of age and ability fully expecting that God can make himself
know to them and use them for His glory.
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