Once again it's deadline time. It's nearing midnight, and what I really want to do is go lay in bed and read for awhile. But I made that commitment to do one entry a day.
The subject is Sunday School. I love Sunday School. Even on the days when the lesson I planned seems to get pushed aside because of something the kids say or do, or because something unexpected happens... even on those days, especially on those days, I love Sunday School.
Today wasn't unexpected... just not the ordinary. Ordinarily, I teach the third through fifth graders. I was asked to take the younger kids as well while the other Sunday School teacher visited her grandbaby. My church is a small country church. My Sunday School class may top off at five or be as few as one.
Today I had only three kids (in the summer, the attendance drops). Two are first graders. One is a new fourth grader.
The word I wanted them to learn today was yoke, and what it means in the Biblical sense. Mairie at Word in the Hand wrote an entry earlier this week about what it means to be yoked to Christ. She writes a very good description of why a farmer yokes his oxen, and how it helps the two animals work together. She imagines what it was like those first few times the younger ox was first yoked, how it fought and resisted what the farmer wanted it to do. Only when the farmer yoked the animal to an older more mature ox does it learn what is expected of it. I hope you'll click on the link I provided and read the entire entry.
It was this same analogy I wanted to bring to my students, whose only understanding of yoke was for it's homonym. I wrote both words on the board for them to see the difference in spelling, and then drew a picture of a yolk and ayoke. I explained how farmers yoke the animals to pull the plow. Still, none of them had seen one, and their understanding of the concept of being yoked with another was a bit weak.
So I pulled out a skein of yarn, and took a twelve inch length of yarn and unraveled it. Then I tied the single strand around a chair rail. When they pulled on the thread, it broke quickly. We repeated the experiment with another length of yarn intact. It held a bit longer before it finally snapped from the weight of the chair. Finally, I showed them how to twist two strands of yarn together, then fold it in half. They watched the yarn wrap upon itself, doubling it's thickness as well as its strength. We tied this double-twisted yarn to the chair, and lifted it up off the floor, and it didn't break.
They wanted to try it with each other sitting in the chair, and dragging the chair around, but still it did not break.
When they were done trying to pick up heavy things with their newly strengthened double-wrapped yarn, I asked the boy, a first grader, "What can we learn from twisting two strands of yarn together and picking up a chair?"
"The yarn didn't break." he said.
"Why didn't it break?" I asked.
"Because it was stronger when we twisted it together."
"That's right! Now, remember what I told you about farmers who yoked their oxen to pull the plow? How does the yarn rope you just made remind you of the yoke story?"
The girl said, "Because one strand alone broke when we lifted the chair, but the one we twisted and wrapped together didn't break. It was stronger."
"And how does that have anything to do with being yoked with Jesus?"
She thought a moment. "When we are yoked to Jesus, we are stronger. We can work harder and it will be easier."
And the boy said, "Yeah, and we won't break like that one string did. We can pull the plow."
To further illustrate how much lighter a load feels when they work together, I had them take turns trying to pick up the table by themselves, which they could not do, then all four of us working together to lift it and move it. They wanted to move it all over the room, but thank goodness the buzzer rang signaling that Sunday School was over.
I chuckled at what the little boy had said about us not breaking and being able to pull the plow.... it was so true. The mouth of babes.
Later, during the worship service, one of the students sat beside me, the future 4th grader. I could tell she was listening to scripture readings. Our Pastor read the same Bible passage, then preached a sermon on it.
He read verses 29 and 30, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." I saw her head turn to me suddenly. She had heard the words. I looked sideways at her, and her smile grew... She took her twisted yarn from her Bible, where she had placed it for a bookmark, then she whispered, "I'm keeping this to remind me of being yoked to Jesus."
For days such as this, I live.
