Each day at Vacation Bible School, our children explored a different part of God’s Word and the good news given to them. Today we going to hear the same message at this past week’s VBS through five Scripture readings and five short reflections.
Our theme this year was “Blastoff! God’s Big Universe.” All week long, the children were invited to imagine themselves exploring the vastness of God’s creation and discovering that God’s love is even bigger than the universe itself.
Each morning a space crew, made up of our youth, welcomed them into the mission. We had a Captain, a Navigator, a Communications Officer, an Engineer, a First Officer, and the ship’s computer, Guiding Research Assistant for Cosmic Exploration, but you can call her G.R.A.C.E. … or Grace! Their mission was to travel through God’s big universe and discover new constellations. Each day they invited the children, our crew members-in-training, to help them with that mission.
As the week unfolded, the children helped discover and name five constellations. Every constellation found pointed them toward something faithful about God and about them.
So this morning, we begin where VBS began: with wonder:
Day 1: Wonder
God’s creation is bigger than we imagine
On the first day, the space crew discovered a constellation in the shape of a rocket. And although one of the space crew members wanted to name it “Rocket,” the Captain said that was way too simple and boring. A rocket named rocket?! No way!
But because this was the first constellation of the mission, our crew began with awe.
So we began with this story from Genesis: God creating light and sky and land and seas, sun and moon and stars, plants and creatures and people. Again and again, God speaks, and something new comes into being, and again and again, God looks at what has been made and calls it good.
That was the first message our children received this week: God’s creation is bigger than we imagine. We begin in awe, because God’s universe is vast, beautiful, and full of possibility.
We begin with wonder. And so that is what the crew named that first rocket-shaped constellation. They named it “Wonder.”
Genesis invites us to look again: to look at light and receive it as a gift; to look at water and sky and soil and trees and creatures and bodies and breath, and receive it as a gift; and to look at the world and the people in it as something God loves.
Faith grows as we learn to look with wonder long enough to notice what God may be forming. The same God who brought light out of darkness continues to bring goodness, beauty, and possibility into the world.
So on Day 1, before the children were told what they should do, before they were told where they belonged, before they were sent out to care or love, they were invited to wonder.
That is where discipleship begins for all of us.
With awe that slows us down, with openness instead of certainty, and with a willingness to stand before God’s creation and receive it as gift. With the humility to stand before God’s creation and say with God, “It is good.”
Even now the world is full of possibility.
Now onto our second day:
Day 2: Known
God knows us by name
After beginning the week in wonder, looking out at the vastness of God’s universe, the next question became much more personal: In a universe this big, does the God who made all of this know who I am?
And the book of Isaiah answers that for us: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine.”
That was the message of Day 2: God knows us by name. We are held in the care of the God who knows who we are and walks with us wherever we go.
Wonder about the big great universe can be beautiful, but it can also make us feel small. When we think about the size of creation, the stars and galaxies, the oceans and mountains, the long history of the world before us and the mystery of all that will come after us, we can begin to wonder whether our small lives count for much.
But Scripture tells us something astonishing: the God who created the heavens and the earth also knows us by name with a love that is personal.
God says, as we heard in Isaiah, “I have called you by name; you are mine.”
As the space crew continued on their mission, they found the second constellation: a footprint. But instead of naming it “foot,” the considered the message for that day. We are known. And with that, the space crew named the footprint, “Known.”
The God who made all things knows your name, knows you. And the God who knows each of us by name, walks with us wherever we go.
Now onto Day 3:
Day 3: Belonging
God made us to belong together
After beginning in wonder and hearing the promise that God knows us by name, the children were invited to take the next step and discover that ware part of something bigger. And although we are not the same, God made us to belong together.
That is exactly what was being written to the church in Corinth.
It was a community filled with different people, gifts, roles, different needs, strengths, and struggles, and yet they were told they are all part of the body of Christ. In other words, the church is meant to be a living body where every person matters and every member belongs to the whole.
During VBS, the third constellation, a puzzle piece, helped the children picture that message. A puzzle piece’s shape shows us that it was made to be joined with others, and when it finds its place, the larger picture becomes a little more visible.
That is the Church.
We belong to God, and because we belong to God, we belong to one another. Our belonging is greater than age or language or ability or background or any way we each move through the world.
In God’s big universe, we are known by name, but we are also gathered into community. God creates us for communion and draws us into a body where the hand and foot, the eye and ear, the strong and vulnerable, the joyful and grieving, the young and old all have a place.
Everyone belongs, and we belong together. So the puzzle piece constellation was named, “Belonging”
Onward to Day 4:
Day 4: Care
God calls us to care for others
After beginning in wonder, remembering that we are known by name, and discovering that we belong to one another, the children were invited to see that belonging leads us into caring for one another.
Because we belong to God and one another, we must act with compassion and care for those in need.
Jesus’ words in Matthew 25 teach us to see people whom the world often trains us to overlook: the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned, the lonely, the vulnerable… and then Jesus describes love in the form of providing food, water, welcome, clothing, care, and presence to those people. We care for Christ when we care for others, especially those in need.
The work of compassion is woven into the worship of God because Jesus has chosen to be found among those who need care.
And so on Day 4, after discovering the wrench constellation, which the Space crew’s engineer really, really wanted to find all week long, the constellation was named, “Care.”
Wonder opens our eyes to the goodness of creation, being known teaches us that every person is precious to God, belonging reminds us that we are members of one body, and care shows us what that belonging looks like.
And now onto the final day, which holds all of this together:
Day 5: Love
God’s love is how the world knows us
On Friday, our word was Love.
After a week of launching into wonder, remembering that we are known by name, discovering that we belong to one another, and learning that belonging requires care for one another, the final word brought everything together.
Love. Love is what holds everything together. Love is how we are known as followers of Jesus.
In the Gospel of John, on the night before his death, Jesus commands his disciples to love one another.:
Before his crucifixion, Jesus prepares his disciples by telling them and us, love should be our way of life, and by loving others, the world will know who we are.
That is why the heart was the final constellation. The constellation named, “Love.”
All week long, the children helped connect stars into constellations and it all led them to this: the God who creates the universe in wonder, the God who calls us by name, the God who gathers us into one body, and the God who sends us to care for those in need is, at the center of it all, we worship a God whose love holds everything together.
On the final day Friday, our children participated in a mission project. They made postcards for people who are homebound or hospitalized, offering words and pictures of care from their church family. They wore hearts as a reminder that love is something we carry with us. They learned that love can be small enough to fit on a postcard and large enough to hold the whole world.
Love is cosmic, and love is concrete. Love is big enough to stretch across God’s whole universe, and love is near enough to show up in a child’s handwriting, a remembered name, a shared meal, a hospital visit, a phone call, a welcome at the door, a prayer, or a church that keeps choosing to make room.
So this is where our VBS journey ends, and this is where our life of faith continues.
We began with Wonder, standing in awe before the God whose creation is vast, beautiful, and full of possibility.
We moved to Known, hearing the promise that in this big universe we are seen, named, claimed, and accompanied by God.
We discovered Belonging, remembering that we are part of something bigger and that we do not have to be the same to belong to one another.
We practiced Care, learning that compassion becomes holy when it takes shape in food, water, welcome, clothing, visiting, listening, and noticing those in need.
And we ended with Love, because love is what holds the whole story together.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen.