Revelation

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.

God wants to make our hearts new. God wants to bring the hurt pieces of us right to the surface, even though that hurts. And God wants to heal us, one by one.

My little one,

I want to tell you a story about justice. Do you know what that word means? Justice is about making things right. It’s what happens at the end of stories, when everyone lives happily ever after. Justice is about the bad guys losing and the good guys winning. In stories, the good people are all good and the bad people are all bad. But in real life, we are much messier. We all have good and bad in us. And here’s the tricky thing: God dreams of a world where no one is left out. God dreams of a world where we can be safe with each other. Where no one is hungry, no one is cold, and no one is alone. God’s justice can’t separate good guys and bad guys. Because a world of divisions and separations is not God’s dream. No, God wants to make our hearts new. God wants to bring the hurt pieces of us right to the surface, even though that hurts. And God wants to heal us, one by one. A world where everyone finds healing, where broken hearts are mended, where the forgotten are finally understood, where the exhausted find rest, this is God’s justice.

God wants to gather us in and listen to our stories. God says, “tell me more.” God says, “I hear you.” God says, “this matters to me, too.” God wants to help us make things right. Sometimes that feels overwhelming. We think things are too broken and too bad. We think we have to leave the world behind, that God won’t want to look at the ugliness and badness in it or in us. But my child, God will never look away from the world He loves.

God will never look away from you. God will keep hoping, keeping helping, keep healing, keep listening, keep loving until She has gathered everyone to the great feast. It is overflowing with bounty. Because God is faithful. There is no end to God’s goodness and God’s love.

So the end of the story with God goes like this: they worked, and they cried, and they built a bigger table and more chairs, and they cooked new foods. And the feast filled every body and every heart, and there was no end to the love that flowed over everyone. And there was no more sorrow and crying in the place of healing, because we turned to each other and wiped away our neighbor’s tears. And we went together into the great green earth and we were enchanted. And God said, little ones, welcome to Zion.