milk & honey mamas

Story contributed by Kristen

Click here for the theological background

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.

Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

1 Corinthians 10:16-17; 1 Corinthians 12:27

My dear friends in Corinth,

Last night I was thinking of you, and I wanted to say a few more things. I wish I could be with you in person, but I hope you feel my love for you as you read this letter.

I have been thinking about love, and about God’s great feast, and about how we are trying to work together to be a community following Jesus. I know it is hard, my friends. I know there are many scary things about being a community. Anytime we love another person, we take a risk. We risk getting hurt. It is hard sometimes to give love and it is hard sometimes to accept love. But that is what we are trying to do as Jesus followers, isn’t it? We are trying to be living bodies of love. 

So I want to tell you: remember the story we have heard from Jesus’ disciples, about their last meal together? Do you remember how Jesus broke the bread and passed out the wine and blessed them? And he said, “this bread is my body, and this wine is my blood.” And then he invited his disciples to eat the bread and drink the wine. He invited them to be part of his body. He told them that he would never forget what it felt like to be hungry, and thirsty, and sad, and angry. He would never forget what it felt like to be a person. And he invited his disciples to remember that with him when they ate the bread and drank the wine.

When we break bread and drink wine together, we are also remembering this. We are remembering Jesus’ body, and our bodies, and the bodies of all those around us—our families and our friends and the plants and the animals and the earth. We are remembering that we are trying to become bodies that work together, bodies that try to be like Jesus. 

Jesus wants all of us. He wants all shapes and sizes, and every color of skin and hair and eyes, and every language, and every singing voice. He wants every one of us. When we all work together, we can do something amazing. We can live in love and we can be filled with love. What can love do?

No matter how powerful I am, if I don’t have love it means nothing. Even if I know everything there is to know, if I don’t have love it means nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. The greatest thing of all is love.

My friends, let us break the bread and drink the wine together and let us remember that love is the greatest of all things. Let us love each other, and love ourselves, and let love fill our broken and empty places. Let us forgive each other, and work together, and work together to be one body: the body of Christ.

With love,

Paul

Ideas for play

Contributed by Kristen

• Watch this video about the body of Christ 

• Make a “body of Christ” craft like this one or these ones

• Read books about working together:
  • We are Together
  • We Move Together
  • A Chair for My Mother
  • Stone Soup

• Make “stone soup” and talk about how we all add what we can to make something delicious

• This is a fun podcast version of Stone Stoup

• Watch this video of a musical version of “the greatest of these is love”

• Have a “feast” of bread and juice together and talk about working together as a united body of love

Poetry

Compiled by Caroline

This is a lovely little poem that reminds us of the need for each person. We are all a part of the body of Christ and each person’s service within that body is essential. 

To a Child

by William Wordsworth

Small service is true service while it lasts:
Of humblest friends, bright creature! scorn not one:
The daisy, by the shadow that it casts,
Protects the lingering dewdrop from the sun.

Artwork

Compiled by Caroline

Here are three paintings that portray the body of Christ in different ways. What strikes you about each painting? Which people draw your eye? Do you see someone that looks like you or looks like a friend? Why is it important to imagine the body of Christ? What do you imagine when you think of the body of Christ? 

Music

Compiled by Caroline

The Body of Christ, Sarah Hart and PJ Anderson