It was cold when I left the house this morning (yes!! I got to wear my cute coat!), so I grabbed some games to play with youth tonight in case it rained or wasn't warm enough to play outside. Turns out, it warmed up considerably in the day (goodbye cute coat), and when the youth started arriving at church it was still warm and we had about an hour of sunlight left.
We ate our dinner and they wanted to play outside,
so I grabbed the sidewalk chalk and went outside with them.
Some of us started coloring and the rest joined in...before too long everyone was coloring on pieces of sidewalk outside the youth house.
They joked and talked and told stories about their school day...and as the light dimmed, I,
being the good youth minister and theologian that I am :)
asked them: "How is sidewalk chalk like God?"
At first I got looks that said: "is she for real?" and
"our youth pastor is such a geek".
But then they began to answer
(what a great youth group--so accommodating!)
"God is Creator, and we're being creative" was one answer...which led to a conversation about Imago Dei and how our creativeness is a reflection of the image-of-Godness in us.
"We're making something new, something pretty, something better" was another answer, which introduced conversation about our call, how we are to live as children of God, disciples of Christ...
All in all, great conversation. And great drawings.
I'm a big fan of sidewalk chalk.
By the time I thought about taking some pictures, the light was almost gone. They're pretty dark, but you can see some of their artwork, doodles, and words...
St. Luke UMC in chalk
They did cover the whole sidewalk. And then some.
Duke the Caterpillar?
My butterfly.
They didn't want to stop!
