15 August 2015

What Holy Ground Feels Like



A scene: we are gathered together, young and old…kids from age 3 to eighth grade, parents in their forties, friends in their twenties.

We make a circle and in the center a story is told with the use of props…some felt, wooden cutouts, a candle, copper wire twisted in the shape of a tree and some stained glass panels.  It’s a familiar Bible story…when God speaks to Moses at the burning bush.  The story goes that Moses’ name means “drawn out” but here in the desert God draws Moses in. So, Moses comes closer to God, attracted by mystery. But Moses cannot come too close.

God says, “Take off your sandals; this is holy ground.”

Later, we wonder about the story and someone asks why God told Moses to take off his sandals. Then another person asks, “What is holy ground, anyway? What made that ground so special?”

We made some interesting observations. Meanwhile, the three-year old played quietly, contentedly in the lap of his sixth-grade friend.

Then I asked, “I wonder what it feels like to be on holy ground?”

 Without hesitation, one of the adults said, “I know. Like that.”

He pointed to the little child, playing.

We knew his answer was perfect.



PlayFull exists to help people and organizations play from the inside-out. We offer training in a unique kind of children’s ministry that integrates the formation of young and old. Write Troy Cady for more information.

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14 August 2015

To Be Full of Wonder

“A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood. If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantment of later years…the alienation from the sources of our strength.”                     

 –Rachel Carson, The Sense of Wonder*


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*This quote appeared in Plough’s Daily Dig on August 14, 2015.