Revelation on a rainy workday
During my studies abroad, at the leading of God, I took up a part-time work assignment at a public kindergarten. It was a steep learning curve, learning how to communicate with the children in a language foreign to me, learning how to play their favorite games and in turn teaching them the games I used to play as a child, back in my own country. During the months I worked there, I walked more outside of my comfort zone than ever before. Each workday as I walked to work, I prayed for the kindergarten, for the children there, and for the teachers – this was not a Christian kindergarten, and as far as I knew, none of the employees believed in God. I also spent the whole walk back from work in prayer, processing what had happened that day, asking God for wisdom and inspiration in communicating His love and truth to the children I spent so much time with.
One day, we were playing in the rain together with the children outside the kindergarten, and then spent some time on a big, round swing, where five or six of the children could sit at the same time. I was reminded of the story of Noah and the flood, and slowly began to retell that story to the children: how the rain came pouring down for days and days – just like it is raining now – and how the waters rose so high as to cover the tops of the highest mountains – even the mountains that we could see now from the kindergarten courtyard; how God cared about Noah and taught him to build a huge boat – even bigger than the ones we see in the harbor – that served to save Noah’s family and many kinds of animals from the flood – giraffes, elephants, lions and many more. As I told the story, gently rocking the swing as though we were all sitting in a boat floating on the waves of the flood, I saw them sitting still, listening with rapt attention. Later, some of them would ask me questions about Noah and the flood and want to hear more stories like the one I told.
A simple moment like this opened up a possibility to share an instance of God’s great narrative with four- and five-year-olds at my workplace. I thank God for the opportunity He created to use what is around us to tell the story of His love and care. Glory to God!
Julia Aleksandra
