Praise to You O Suffering God.
to drive us crazy or do us harm.
The book of Job seldom features in our conversations with children – or adults for that matter – because its subject matter is so difficult to make sense of. Job 1:22 is a verse which makes us question our understanding of God’s goodness and our (carefully-nursed) illusion that the Christian life is a comfortable one.
The “prayer journey” below does not try to articulate a clever theology around the concepts of blessing or suffering, but rather to respond to the invitation inherent in the story: to express gratitude for our many blessings and to pray for those who, when stripped of life’s blessings, feel unloved and abandoned by God.
Cut-outs of some of the “blessings” listed in the story – children, farmland, oxen, donkeys, sheep, servants, a house, laden-camels etc. to be “hidden” in easy-to-find locations or kept in a box.
A large world map that can be unfolded and laid out on the floor.
Symbols of disasters like floods, volcanoes, bombs (for war) etc. that will be placed in relevant locations during the period of intercessory prayer – it is helpful to practice finding or possibly lightly marking the points at which these will be placed on the map.
Tea lights or cut outs of hearts (depending on the age of the children).
A copy of “May God’s love be with you” card for each child – along with colouring pencils, stickers, glitter etc. – download Worksheet.
Once upon a time, long long ago, lived a man named Job who loved God with all his heart and tried his best to only do what was good and right.
Now, Job had many things. Some people would call him lucky; some, rich. As Christians, we would probably use the word blessed.
Can you help me find/name some of the blessings that God had given this good man?
I wonder how Job felt about all of these blessings from God.
I wonder if you feel like God has blessed you.
I wonder if Job ever stopped to say thank you to God for his family and his servants, for his comfortable home, for the good land and all the animals he looked after.
I wonder if we should stop for a moment and say thank you to God for all of our blessings.
and for the many ways in which you have blessed us.
Some jealous people stole all of Job’s oxen and donkeys and killed his servants.
Lightning struck the sheep and their shepherds and burnt them to a crisp.
Robbers took all of the camels and murdered the camel drivers.
And then, worst of all, a tornado struck the house where all of Job’s sons and daughters were having a party and all of them died, but the Bible tells us that not once did Job blame God.
I wonder how you would feel if you got news like that!
I wonder if you would still love God and try to do good.
I wonder if you would still think that God loves you.
People humiliate us; they try to rob us of our dignity, to strip us bare; they make it their mission to alienate us, destroy us, outstrip us.
… yet through love we are forgiven.
… not as some ethereal vision or distant dream. Even today, Jesus makes life more bearable, more beautiful, by connecting us through the cross to one another in a way that comforts and takes responsibility for our Christian brothers and sisters, our fathers and mothers, our sons and daughters, and indeed, for the whole world.
Yet there are times so dark, so difficult that we wonder how we will survive, endure, let alone thrive on life’s abundance.
In the midst of the darkness, Christ cries out that he has carried out pain; that we are not alone. On the cross, love laments so that we can know that we will never be abandoned, never be forsaken.
In fact, in our fragile humanity, in our needs and our longings, God moves us beyond superficial, surface-level relationships to a spirituality that is drenched in the Living Waters of God’s Spirit.
We praise God today that God’s saving love sees what is started through to the end. In a world of half-done things and best intentions, we are moved by the knowledge that the One who began a good work in us is faithful to complete it.
God is not done with our lives until we find our final resting place in God’s heart; until our spirits rest completely and safely in God’s hands.
Are we ready to offer our lives, our hearts, our love, our all to God’s saving love today?