There was once someone who did such wonderful things and said such amazing things that people wondered who he was. Finally they couldn’t help it—they just had to ask him.
“I am the Good Shepherd,” he said. “I know each one of the sheep by name, and they know the sound of my voice.
“When I take the sheep from the sheepfold, they follow me.
“I walk in front of the sheep to show them the way.
“I show them the way to the good grass.”
This is the table of the Good Shepherd. Here is the bread and wine of the Good Shepherd.
Sometimes we think we need to have a little statue or something on the table to remind us that this is the table of the Good Shepherd, but the Good Shepherd is in the bread and the wine, so we don’t really need anything else to remind us.
Sometimes someone comes to read the very words of the Good Shepherd and to give us the bread and the wine.
Sometimes the people of the world come to this table. Even the children come.
Now I wonder if you have ever come close to a table like this?
I wonder where this table could really be?
I wonder if the people are happy around this table?
I wonder if you have ever heard the words of the Good Shepherd?
I wonder if you have ever come close to the bread and the wine?
I wonder where the bread and the wine could really be?
I wonder what the bread and wine could really be?
I wonder where this whole place could really be?
For parents
Every lesson, we offer information about Godly Play to help you understand both its methodology and purpose. Today we look at the first of three key concepts that children teach us about God: God’s presence is elusive.
Our relationship with God is like the children’s game of Peekaboo and, as it develops, one of Hide-and-Seek. This can be dignified iin Latin by the phrase Deus Absconditus atque Praesens (God is hidden yet also present).
This is because we do not play Hide-and-Seek with people we know are not there. The possibility of a presence that can be revealed is necessary for the game to go forward. Children will play what and with whom they please. You can’t make children (or adults) play. If adults really want to know children they need to become childlike. This is like being born of heaven rather than earth, like Nicodemus said (John 3:3, 5), because it is so different from “normal” adult understanding. Theological Hide-and-Seek continues for a lifetime. In fact, the goal of the game is to keep the game going rather than ending it by winning or losing.