Sunday my church made its annual trek to the Valley Grove Church where we worshiped in the beautiful old church surrounded by ripening fields and restored prairie. I volunteered to take the Sunday school class of 16 mixed age (4 to 8) students, which began with a song and a walk outside, looking for things that they found to be special.
We sat on a quilt and read a story about a father and son who
walked along the beach to discover the “little bits of heaven” all around them.Most of the children found flowers and leaves and held them up as we looked at the pictures in the story. The father and son stopped under an oak tree just like the one we sat under enjoying the shade and the breeze. We talked about the picture of the acorn and how something so small could grow into the big tree above us. A few children at the edge of the quilt found acorns they could share with us too. After the story they shared their flowers with us and told us why it was special to them. I shared a leaf from a grape vine and explained that it reminded me of the parable that says we are like a grape vine in our church because we are all fruit of the vine, all connected in community. We owe it to ourselves and to our children to elect legislators who fully appreciate the value of the natural resources with which we have been so richly blessed.