A Glimpse of Small Group

Kayanne and Lexie led small group tonight. We looked at the book of Jonah, particularly the ending (which happens to be one of my favorite God and human interactions accounted for in the Bible). The student leaders asked what were somethings in our life that we treat similarly to the vine that grew up overnight, and was destroyed overnight (a vine Jonah neither tended to or made it grow).

One gal mentioned that maybe that worm was really hungry.

Another talked about her interactions with some mentally challenged friends at school.

Still another talked about the movie the Titanic.

But before you discount these students' comments, let me explain. The story of Jonah centers on grace. God shows compassion even to the wicked people of Ninevah, and this causes Jonah's great distress (the language is pretty strong--I kind of picture this wimpy prophet dude turning into the Hulk--that's how angry he was. And then, such an image always makes me chuckle...). The coolest verse to end off the story comes from God:

"Why can't I likewise change what I feel about Nineveh from anger to pleasure, this big city of more than 120,000 childlike people who don't yet know right from wrong, to say nothing of all the innocent animals?" (Message translation)

The girl who talked about the worm, was referring to when the vine was destroyed overnight. She explained that God was even showing compassion to the worm by giving him something to eat. Afterall, if God cares about the innocent animals (other translations say cattle), why wouldn't He be caring even about this little worm? Surely the story, and the circumstance about the vine, is not just about Jonah.

Right.

And the gal who talked about hanging out with her mentally challenged friends admitted that she often sees movies and images that display a certain standard of beauty. "I know it's foolish, but I want that," she said. But then, when she's hanging out with such friends, she's reminded of all that she already has. How good she's got it. How selfish she has been.

One girl piped in during this time that she gets so frustrated when she brushes her teeth faithfully every night, but then the dentist finds four cavities. FOUR! But her brother, who hardly brushes (ASIDE: which is gross, by the way), has none.

"And the beauty of grace is that it makes life unfair..." (Check out this story for even more juicy details. Or what about this one?)

The last one, the girl who talked about Titanic.. I actually have no idea what she was talking about. She talked quite fast, and well.. yeah.

Can I just say that I love how teenager's minds work to flesh out Scripture?