Friendship with God
One of my favorite quotes about friendship comes from C.S. Lewis, who spoke of the surprise and delight of finding a new friend at a young age. He talks about the power of friendship in his book The Four Loves, “Friendship, I have said, is born at the moment when one man says to another “What! You too? I thought that no one but myself…”
I remember seeing a co-worker roll a mountain bike into a storage closet, and I thought, “You too? You’re into mountain biking?” I’ve been in someone’s home and seen a book on the shelf and thought, “I had no idea they were interested in that book too!” New friends instantly found.
This past week Vacation Bible School was all about friendship, in fact the theme was “Friendship with God.” In John 15:15, Jesus says to his disciples, “I have called you friends.” There is something powerful about a child coming to embrace part of their relationship with God as a friendship. Of course there is more to our relationship with God than this, as He is also our father, and we are also called to fear Him, and yet that doesn’t eliminate the importance of friendship. Children should feel they can approach God like they would a friend. In fact, Jesus held up the innocent simplicity of a child as a model for us to follow.
Watching hundreds of kids (over 200 came on the first day) sing praises to God all week was a joy and delight. VBS is the biggest event we do as a church each year, in terms of a total production and volunteer effort. It’s also likely our most effective community outreach, as probably half the families represented are not regular attenders at Valley View. We are thankful for the many volunteers who gave so much time to VBS this year. On our biggest day we had 136 volunteers involved! We couldn’t do it without so many giving of their time, energy, and passion.
Thanks as well to our new Children’s Minister, Lauren Bramley, who embraced her new role and brought a huge amount of joy and energy. What a great week! Her leadership was also a testimony to the spirit of unity that exists here at Valley View, as she leaned on the wisdom of the team that has planned for years and also continued to seek out wisdom from Eddie Lee, who also volunteered.
Join us this week as we continue in our study of Esther, following up on chapter eight and Esther’s appeal to the King (read ahead in chapter nine). Please continue to pray for the kids who came and many of their parents who are not involved in church. I connected with as many of them as I could, and we are praying for many new families to become a part of the church because of VBS. God is at work in the South End of Louisville!