2005 SPIRITUAL GROWTH STUDY

To view the Children of the Bible site, click here

CHILDREN OF THE BIBLE

Do you remember the children’s hymns:

Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world…

First let me hear how the children stood round his knee…

Away in a manger, no crib for a bed…?

These are the songs of our childhood and the children in our lives.  They make us smile with affection and nostalgia. When we hear the title, “Children in the Bible,” most of us would hope for sweet stories with happy endings.  Children should be loved and cared for.  We are children of God and feel God’s guidance and nurture in our lives.

But, love is always facing the challenges of life, and the stories of children in the Bible do not tend to be warm and cuddly.  When Jesus put a child in the midst of the disciples and said that to enter God’s reality you must become like a child, it was all the more shocking because of the low status children had in the world at that time.

And, as much as we would like to say that children are now treated far better than they were in “those days,” women in mission know that children of the world suffer from hunger, preventable disease, and lack of education.  Even where food is plenty, children may suffer abuse or be targeted by advertisers to consume alcohol, cigarettes, brand identities, sex and more.

This spiritual growth study on Children in the Bible asks us to set aside our nostalgia and look at the biblical stories with honesty and bravery.  The lives of children in those days were often much like today.  They were often pawns in the games of adult lives. Or, objects in stories that had a moral, not the subject of the story. 

We will hear from four authors:

• Stephanie Biggs-Scribner brings her in-depth analysis of Scripture to provide the details we might miss.

• Stephanie’s 10 year old daughter adds her voice as she and her mother write letters to each other about each story.

• Linda Hollies provides the story telling interpretation of the text from the perspective of the children in the stories.  What might they have been thinking?

• Minerva Garza Carcaño guides readers and groups into exercises and reflections which make the study come alive and move us into action as women in mission.

We invite you into the stories in the Bible from which we can glean the place of children in ancient times. Stories from both the Hebrew and Greek texts---the Old and New Testaments will call us once again to both love in the face of challenge and yes, to become like a child so that we too enter into the kingdom of God where the hungry are fed, the prisoners are freed and the children are whole people in Jesus Christ.

To view the Children of the Bible site, click here

For additional information contact umw-som@gbgm-umc.org