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.
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
Ephesians 3:16-17
My dear friends in Ephesus,
I want to remind you of a few things that our dear friend Paul taught us.
Remember how he always talks about grace? He taught that grace always binds us together, and binds us to God. No matter how hard we work to be perfect, we will always make mistakes. So we can stop trying to be perfect and instead try to find joy. When we believe in joy, and we let Jesus be at the center of our lives, grace fills and lifts us up.
Jesus is what brings peace. Sometimes we are divided, like there is a wall between us. But Jesus breaks down that wall. He says, “you are all the children of God. No one is better or more important than anyone else.” That is grace. We can fill ourselves up with that grace, and it will feel like love, and hope, and happiness. We will remember that we are loved just as we are. We don’t have to earn that love. It is already there. We will remember that everyone around us is loved just as they are. We will remember that we are all connected, no walls between us.
Sometimes we find that there are walls between people. Walls that keep people out. Walls that say some people are better than others. Walls that hurt and exclude. This is not Jesus’ way. When we see walls, we can be like Jesus and try to pull them down. We can remember the grace that God wants to fill the world with.
When we try to pull down walls, we let the roots of love and peace grow deep. And these roots sink deep down into the earth, and they grow up into trees and flowers and leaves, and they are bright and full and beautiful.
Can you see them? Sunflowers, daisies, willow trees, lilacs, lilies, roses, olive trees. This garden of love can cover the whole earth with color. It can fill our planet, and our hearts, with life. But the roots need room to grow. They cannot reach the sun when there are walls splitting the roots apart.
Jesus holds us together. He is like the sun, and the rain, bringing life to the garden of life. When we let love water the earth, we can be filled with the fullness of God. This fullness is like the most comfortable clothing you can imagine. Shoes that feel like walking on air. Pants that wrap your legs up as soft as a cloud. A shirt that feels like a hug from a soft mother polar bear. The garments of Jesus lift us up, reminding us to care for the garden of the earth. We are all gardeners.
Your friend,
A follower of Paul
Ideas for Play
Contributed by Kristen
- Read as though a letter has been delivered!
- Draw a picture of what you think grace looks like
- Make a chain of hearts with family pictures on them. Discuss how grace binds us together.
- Watch this video of the Berlin wall coming down. Talk about how Christ breaks down walls between us.
- What are some walls that exist between people in the world? How can we help break down walls?
- Look at images of roots and discuss how important root systems are (this article is great!)
- Make a collage of plants and talk about the garden of love
- Put on the “garments of Jesus” with your comfiest clothing
- Spend some time “gardening” (being in the dirt) and discuss caring for the earth and being a gardener.
Poetry
Compiled by Caroline
The Man Born to Farming
by Wendell Berry
The Grower of Trees, the gardener, the man born to farming,
whose hands reach into the ground and sprout
to him the soil is a divine drug. He enters into death
yearly, and comes back rejoicing. He has seen the light lie down
in the dung heap, and rise again in the corn.
His thought passes along the row ends like a mole.
What miraculous seed has he swallowed
That the unending sentence of his love flows out of his mouth
Like a vine clinging in the sunlight, and like water
Descending in the dark?
Art
Compiled by Caroline
Music
Compiled by Caroline
Songs of Growing and Blooming and Softness
https://spotify.link/y1mMns3ZsDb
The Four Seasons Recomposed: Spring
https://spotify.link/KxLpe6c0sDb
Deux Arabesques for Harp
https://spotify.link/YgGbFAu0sDb
Berceuse in D-Flat Major, Op. 57, Chopin
milk & honey mamas 
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