Children's Sermon, "Answer to Job"

Lower Panels, “God Answers Job,” 1983, Art-glass Window, FPCE

Children’s Sermon to accompany “Through the Bible,” № 29, Job 42:1-6, 10-17

I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see you …. –Job 42:5

In today’s worship service, we’re reading from the Bible a famous story about a man with an unusual name.  In English, his name looks like this (J-O-B).  Usually, we would pronounce this word “job,” and know that a job is a task or a chore or something we do to earn money.  But in this case, the three letters spell “Job,” the main character in our story.

Did you know that Job is pictured in one of our art-glass windows? Two of our windows show a human face, and Job is in one of them. Look around: Can you tell me which window? (answers). What do we see in the window? (answers). There is a lot we see in the glass, but some of the main things are JOB’S FACE, HAIR, HANDS, ARMS, AND BLUE ROBE; higher up in the window, we see the HAND OF GOD reaching down from a swirling, lightning-filled storm.  The artist who designed the window says, Storms are often associated with manifestations of God in the Old Testament.

Job’s story is complicated. Job’s story is sad.  He loses everything he owns, and even his family. These are a few of the reasons we usually find it hard to teach children, or even to talk about among adults. I thought about the simplest way I could explain it to you, and I think it comes down to three things.

1.)  FIRST, there are times when we feel like we’re under a big thunderstorm, when bad things are happening to good people.

2.)  SECOND, if we look around, sometimes right in the middle of storm, we will see God is in the storm with us.

3.)  THIRD, it’s not easy to ride out the storm, we wish there was no storm at all. But usually it just takes some time, and it’s enough to know that God goes with us through the storm, until the sun shines again.

There’s a poem about this I’d like to share with you (Footprints in the Sand). I ask you to share it with your parents and family, and ask them what they think it means.  Now, let’s bow our heads for prayer.

Prayer: Dear God, thank you for the story of Job. Thank you for being with us in the storms of life. Please protect us, and help us to trust you to bring us safely through the storm until the sun shines again. AMEN.