milk & honey mamas

Story contributed by Kristen

Click here for the theological background of Acts 1-5

Remember, repetition helps children internalize and make connections. It might be a good idea to read the same story every day for a week. You can add different activities every day.

“Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee”

Acts 3:6

The Day of Pentecost

We have come to a very interesting part of the story of Jesus. It is an interesting part, and also a sort of confusing part. Remember how excited we felt when Jesus came back? It was such a relief that the sadness of Saturday didn’t last forever. But then, after a few days with his friends, Jesus goes back to his Heavenly home with Mother and Father God. He cannot stay with his friends on earth, and he leaves. How do you think his friends felt about that?

The stories we are going to be telling now are about how his friends tried to figure out what to do without Jesus there with them. And guess what? They made lots of mistakes! They had lots of struggles and challenges. There were times when they felt really discouraged. There were times when it was hard to remember what Jesus had taught them. But they tried with all of their hearts. They tried because they loved the work of kindness and healing they were doing, and they believed it was the work Jesus wanted them to do. They believed in Jesus, and that’s what this story is about.

After Jesus left, the disciples spent a lot of time remembering. They remembered what Jesus had taught them about kindness. They remembered that Jesus always had time for children. They remembered how Jesus noticed people who were hungry, or sad, or tired. They remembered how he made them feel. They remembered how he fed them. They remembered how their nets were full of fish when Jesus was around. As they remembered, they got ready for the sacred day of Pentecost, or Shavuot, a day of gratitude when Jews thank the earth for all she provides and thank God for their healing words.

The day of Pentecost arrived and the disciples gathered with their many friends and families and community members. They feasted, thanking the earth and thanking God for the fish, and the wheat, and the grapes, and the good soil that supported them.

Maybe they remembered how much Jesus loved the earth, and noticed the flowers and the birds and the wind and the trees, and thought about their feasts together with Jesus. And maybe, because they were thinking about that, and wondering how to carry on Jesus’ work, something happened. The room they were in got very, very quiet. As quiet as sleep.

And then, in a flash of light, the room was filled with the song of the wind. Whooooosh and swooooosh and siiiiiigghhhh and ahhhhhhhh and oooooooooh the wind rushed through the room, filling every space, and wrapping around every person like the soft branches of a willow tree, and then it was as though the wind sang right into everyone’s throats, wooshing and swooshing into their bodies, until they were all singing too.

And the room was filled with beautiful, glorious music. Everyone sang something a little different, with words in languages from everywhere on earth, because the wind spoke to each person in just the way they needed, and they found that they didn’t want to stop singing, because the song held them all up, and wove them all together, and they were suspended in the loveliest hammock of peace, and stillness, and hope as though the song of the wind could lift their tired feet right off the ground. 

Later, when they talked about what had happened, they all said slightly different things. But they were not confused. They knew exactly what had happened. “It was the same way we felt when we were with him,” Mary said, quietly. “It was just like he said. He will be with us. Spirit with lift us up.” 

Lame Man Healed 

Soon after that special day of Pentecost, some of the disciples were walking around the town. They came to the gates of a Temple, and they saw someone sitting there. They came closer, and they saw that the person sitting could not walk. He was crippled. He seemed very tired, and he looked toward them as he heard them approach.

“Some money for a crippled man?” he asked, in a worn-out voice. It sounded like he had asked this same question many times, and the disciples wondered if anyone ever stopped to help.

The disciples looked at each other, and at the man. They thought about Jesus and what he might do. Then Peter knelt down next to the man, and he took his hand.

“My friend, I have no money. But I have something beautiful. It is love. And I give it to you. I give you love in the name of Jesus Christ, and I invite you to stand.”

Peter stood up and held out his hand. That same wooshing feeling of the song of the wind rushed through him, and around him, and the lame man reached out his hand too. The wind wrapped around their joint arms, and in the quiet they could almost hear the songs of life and love and healing, and then the crippled man stood. He stood tall, Spirit rushing and flowing all around him, and then he lifted his hands to heaven, standing on two strong feet, and all of them knew right then that Jesus’ work was just beginning. 

Ideas for Play 

Contributed by Kristen

Day of Pentecost

• Act it out!

• Watch this short video

• Watch Spirit (music video) and discuss

• Read “God Sends Help” in The Jesus Storybook Bible

• Read “What Happens Next” in Moments with Jesus

• Talk about what Spirit feels like for you

• Make windchimes or rainmakers and discuss the voice of Spirit

Healing of the lame man

• Act it out! 

• Watch this video 

• Discuss: we may not have money to give, but what can we do to help those around us who are suffering?
  

Poetry

Compiled by Caroline

This poem by Malcolm Guite plays with the spirit expressing itself through the four elements—air, water, fire, and earth. I especially like this train of thought because I have been struck by the detail of the spirit entering like “a mighty rushing wind.” What was that like, I wonder? And have I experienced the spirit in a similar way? Have I experienced the spirit like water or fire or earth? Once we open up our imagination to how the spirit could express itself, then it can be easier to identify those expressions in our life. 

If you’d like to learn more about this poem, you can find Malcolm Guite’s commentary here. 

Pentecost

by Malcolm Guite

Today we feel the wind beneath our wings

Today  the hidden fountain flows and plays

Today the church draws breath at last and sings

As every flame becomes a Tongue of praise.

This is the feast of fire,air, and water

Poured out and breathed and kindled into earth.

The earth herself awakens to her maker

And is translated out of death to birth.

The right words come today in their right order

And every word spells freedom and release

Today the gospel crosses every border

All tongues are loosened by the Prince of Peace

Today the lost are found in His translation.

Whose mother tongue is Love in every nation.

Art

Compiled by Caroline

How is the Holy Spirit being portrayed in this painting? How is it affecting the people? What do you think the different people are feeling? What does this painting teach you about the Holy Spirit?

How is the Holy Spirit being portrayed in this painting? How is it affecting the people? What do you think the different people are feeling? What does this painting teach you about the Holy Spirit?

How is the Holy Spirit being portrayed in this painting? How is it affecting the people? What do you think the different people are feeling? What does this painting teach you about the Holy Spirit?

Music

Compiled by Caroline

Spiritus Sanctus Vivificans, Hildegard von Bingen, Armonico Consort

Here is the translation:

The Holy Spirit: living and life-giving,

the life that’s all things moving,

the root in all created being:

of filth and muck it washes all things clean—

out-scrubbing guilty staining, its balm our wounds constraining—

and so its life with praise is shining,

rousing and reviving

all.

Veni Sancte Spiritus, Liturgical Folk