Description
The focus this week is on 1 John 5:1-6, with the first resource, It’s a Wrap!, comprising three different Bible reading options. The passage itself is short and dense, so more than one reading is really helpful for taking in the symbolism and structure of the text. As well, It’s a Wrap! includes one interactive prayer idea and one craft suggestion. The additional resources comprise two song suggestions – I Am a Friend of Jesus (based on verses from John 15) and Let the Weak say I Am Strong (repeated from last week, albeit with a different suggestion on how to use).
As we’ve been following the readings through the season of Easter we’ve encountered lots of different imaginative and creative ways the writers of the bible have of talking about God and how people are connected to God. We’ve seen…
• Jesus being imagined as a stone, and we are a building
• Jesus as a shepherd and we are sheep
• In another reading it imagines us all connected and growing together as
branches on a vine – and the whole of the vine is Jesus
At the beginning of 1 John we’re imagined as witnesses in a trial giving evidence of what we’ve seen and heard of Jesus. Across these past few weeks we’ve discovered that reading the bible asks us to switch our imaginations into hyper-drive and imagine ourselves as all kinds of different things. Today – get ready for it –our bible reading imagination turns us into [drum roll] tiny newborn babies!
From the get-go, let’s be clear that in the bible being called a baby is something beautiful and precious, exactly the way God wants us to think of ourselves. As we listen to what 1 John 5:1-6 says about us being God’s little babies, let’s have it firmly fixed that being called a baby is a good thing to hear!
