Children’s Time
"Playing catch with God"

         When I was a young boy, one thing I would do on a warm Spring afternoon would be to take a ball and toss it in the air and catch it. Any of you ever do that? Now, I must confess that it was much nicer to have my Dad out with me playing catch, but Dad couldn't always be there. So, the next best thing (especially if there wasn't a friend nearby) was to toss it in the air and catch it. You know, I don't remember thinking about it quite like this, but you could almost say I was "playing catch with God." What do you think?
         Well, no - God wasn't catching the ball when I tossed it up and throwing it back to me. Something else made the ball come back down. You're right, it was gravity. But in a way, it was God - cause God created the earth and everything in it, and God must've made gravity, too. "What goes up," we say, "must come down." Standing right here, we can count on it, can't we?
         You know, I think I kind of like seeing this as playing catch with God. There are a lot of times times in life that we count on God being with us. Maybe they are simply depending upon what God has created - things like gravity: "what goes up must come down." Maybe they are other things we can't see, but we know that they are true, and we depend upon them.
         Anyway, next time you go out alone with a ball and glove and toss it in the air, I invite you to "play catch with God." While you're at it, just talk with him. You can depend upon him listening. Maybe you can listen, also. God might have something to say to you as you're tossing the ball in the air.

adapted from  Growing Together, by Harold Steindam,
©1989, The Pilgrim Press, New York, p. 58-59.

Responding with our Tithes and Offerings

         "I will come into your house with burnt offerings," the psalmist sang. "Burnt offerings" aren’t part of worship any more, but rough times - when we go "through fire and water" - are not foreign to our experience. We get "burned" in life, we get in over our heads at times. Think of our dear sister Lois ___, for whom chemotherapy is "burning" through her bone marrow - clearing it of cancer. Talk about feeling overwhelmed! And yet, God is faithful, even "through fire and water." Can we "bless the Lord, letting the sound of our praise be heard," in the middle of such times. Can we bring these experiences as "burnt offerings" to God? You bet.
         As you return your tithe or offering just now, think about the times in life when have been burnt, or gotten in over your head. In your heart, place these moments on the altar. Would you pray with me?

         Lord, we praise you - not just through the good moments in life, but also through the "fire and water" times. We lay our offerings on your altar, realizing - as we do - that we rest in the palm of your hands. You are upholding us every moment of our lives. Help us to live, through thick and thin, as people who know that they are upheld. Nothing can separate us from your love in Christ Jesus our Lord! In his name we pray. Amen.