I don’t remember too many lessons about God from when I was a kid. Honestly, I believe the majority of lessons I hear in church fall away from my conscious memory. When I was a kid the ratio was even higher. This is because most services were spent in the back of a catholic church where me and my sister would help each other not pay attention.
One Sunday I did go to a children’s church program. It was at my step-dad’s church, so I was at least 8 years old. The kids would go downstairs, into the basement of the church, while the adults learned in the main sanctuary.
As the lesson start all the kids were given gum. We were told to chew it up and then put our gum on the cross.
Now I didn’t know much about Christianity, the cross, or church, but I knew the basics. Putting gum on the central symbol of Christianity seemed disrespectful.
My gum was chewed up, covered in my spit, and gross. That was part of the pastor’s point. Our sin is gross.
The part about putting it on the cross was showing us we can give our grossness to God. Jesus dies on the cross and rose again, so that we can know a relationship with Him.
Through out my life I forgot many lessons, feel away from God, and didn’t believe in Him. However, I never forgot the lesson of the gum on the cross.
This is a post in the series God Shows Up. Follow the link to read more.