This Children’s sermon was given July 5, 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic. I’m sharing it here in case it’s useful to someone.

Good morning, girls and boys. I’ve been missing you, and I’m so glad we start Vacation Bible School tomorrow. You don’t have to have the kit that parents signed up for, to participate. I hope I’ll see you on Zoom.

I have a question for you. Have you ever held a treasure in your hands? Something so special, you’re afraid you might break it? How would you hold it? With steady hands. You might want to sit down to hold it, so t87hat you don’t drop it. And as you hold it, how would you feel? You might be thankful for it. You might feel love for it, and want the best for it.

I brought a treasure of mine that I’ve shown you before. Do you remember what is in this box? I keep it in my box because my hands sometimes are shaky and I don’t want to break it- I want to keep it safe. See, it’s a butterfly. It’s not alive anymore, but it’s still beautiful.  I can look at it and feel thankful, and treasure it.

I bet if you asked your parents, “What are your most valued treasures?” I know what they’d say. They say you, of course! When they brought you home, I wonder if you were like that butterfly. They wanted to stare at you all the time, and noticed everything about you. They wanted to keep you safe and not break you. And as you grew they had to let you begin doing things, making choices. And sometimes getting hurt feelings or scrapes from falling, and that was hard. And you know they will keep treasuring you, even as you become an adult. You’ll make mistakes and hard things happen, and oh that’s hard for those parents who treasure you and want to keep you safe. But if they kept you in a box, you couldn’t be who God made you to be.

We are not just treasures to our parents. Who else treasures us, treasures all of us, the billions of us all over the world? God. How God does it, I don’t understand, But God does. God holds us in God’s hands, just like the song says, treasuring us, wanting the best for us, feeling pain when we feel pain, and such joy, when we can fully be the people that God made us to be. I’m so thankful for a love like that.

Let’s pray: Dear God, thank you for somehow loving and treasuring each of us in this world, no matter who we are or what we do. We love you, God. Amen.