The Spark

When I first started going to church when I was younger, I kept on wondering every day when I saw people fervently praying and worshipping God…”What is this all about? What is the spark that my parents get but I don’t get?”

I was about ten years old when I first stepped foot in church. I didn’t mind it but I didn’t understand it either. I attended church services and Sunday schools and learned about Jesus and God and was immersed in everything but I just didn’t get it.

No one ever told me the big picture. That Jesus is my Lord and Savior because He died on the cross for me. He saved all the bad things I have done or will ever do from sending me to hell. He made things right with God, so sinful humans could be saved. For free He did all of that.

I never got told that personally as a ten year old going to church.

I was told that, however, when I was fourteen years old and entering high school. I was getting confirmed at my new church. There in my confirmation classes I had all of it explained to me – through the Bible. I was taught about Christianity like any secular person would. I was taught about what God did. What the bible meant. What Jesus did for me. Through God’s direct Word in the Bible, Jesus saved me. I can’t think of a specific time or place, but through that class and the teachings of the Bible, Jesus explained to me – everything. And I was saved.

Looking back I realize that I lived in darkness for about five years before the Gospel was explained to me thoroughly and through the only resource that WORKS – God’s Word.

I think that’s something that churches may do wrong – at least in the churches I’ve been to. As a kid, you go to Sunday school and Vacation Bible School and you sing songs and make crafts and learn all the classic Bible stories but – does anyone ever tell you why we’re making these crafts? Why we’re singing these songs? Why we’re learning about David and Goliath and Adam and Eve and Noah’s ark?

I wasn’t told why we did those things until I was fourteen! Not personally, anyway. And sure, maybe kids just wouldn’t get it. But maybe they WOULD. If you told them God was there when they were scared at night when they thought monsters were under their bed. If you told them that God was guiding the handlebars as they learned to guide a bike. If you told them that grandma who just passed away was now in God’s kingdom because Jesus, the one they colored pictures of, saved her from her sins by dying on the cross. If you told them that when they pass on from this life, on a day hopefully far, far away, that they will be up in heaven too because of Jesus.

I don’t think our churches should wait to tell us the truth about Jesus. Let kids know the truth – that sin is ugly and bad, that death is real, that the devil is real and present. But forgiveness is good, heaven is real, and God is also so, so present.

While it was a little confusing that I wasn’t told of God’s Word personally until I was fourteen, I am so, SO glad that the right people in my life were there to even tell me so. If it weren’t for those people, I’d be living a life on the path to hell. God brought all of those people into my life. He has likely put similar people into your life as well.