VBS Through Older Eyes

By Mallory

In June, I worked at my church's Vacation Bible School (VBS). It was fun, as always, but exhausting. The kids seemed really into it and, believe me, they were very LOUD and EXCITED all week (until they were tired... and restless... and antsy!) But good times were had by all, and I had fun reminiscing about the days when my brother and I were little and we went to VBS.

This year our theme was “Rome;” the week centered around Paul's imprisonment and the underground church. Every night the kids learned a Biblical lesson summarized in a short statement like “God's love changes us,” "God's love saves us,” etc. One night the lesson was “Nothing can separate us from God's love.” On stage, our children's minister asked the kids if sickness or death or pain could separate us from God's love. As the kids shouted “NO!” in enthusiastic unison, I couldn't help but think about how hard it is for even adults to grasp this idea.

It was weird to see the other adult volunteers in a new light and know that, in reality, many of them are plagued by exhaustion, illness, family struggles, financial trouble, disappointment, and depression. Throughout the week I saw a lot of tired faces and frantic pager checks. And there was so much turnover night by night with volunteers, too. I had such a strong sense that so many of these people just had more going on than they could handle (and I could relate).

As we get older, a statement like “Nothing can separate us from God’s love” is harder to understand than ever. But seeing those kids absorb the message the way they did gives me hope that maybe it’ll stick with them in years to come and they’ll grow to understand it better. And I think it was good for me to hear a reminder that NOTHING can separate me from God’s love -not sin, pain, or difficult times. I guess this is a lesson I’ll be relearning for years to come.

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39 (NIV))