THE 10 PLAGUES OF EXODUS

I had the joy of being the storyteller for Children's Worship on Sunday. The assigned story was the first 9 plagues God sent to get Pharoah to 'let His people go.' I love telling stories to kids - and know that object lessons make it stick. I used red food coloring to dye a bottle of water red to talk about how all of the water in all of the rivers, ponds, lakes, streams - even in their houses turned to blood. One of the kids asked me if it was real blood.

I had a wooden frog to represent the next plague - frogs in their cereal bowls, frogs crawling up their legs - frogs everywhere. I caught a real fly and took it in a little jar, and had a picture of a fly to show as well for the plague of flies. Toy farm animals for the livestock plague. A container of ping pong balls for the hail plague. Lights out and a flashlight for the 3-day plague of darkness. Pictures of the other bugs and a picture of a person infected with boils. Visual aids.

I realized while preparing the lesson that God was very specific in the plagues He chose. They were designed to prove He alone was the One true God. His plagues defied all of their worshiped deities, and they had one for everything, from river worship of The Nile, to worship of the sun and moon. He proved clearly that none of their alleged gods could stand up against his Almighty Power.

His object lessons were a good message for the Hebrew children as well. They had been in slavery for 400 years. They had lost their voice and lost their faith. Then God moved! In His time, in His way, with unlikely methods.

Sunday morning I cued the kids to respond, "What were you thinking, Pharoah?" every time Pharaoh said 'no.' They really got into it. It was truly fun - and in the fun, they had the opportunity to learn an awesome Bible story about our miracle-working God who cared about his people and brought them out of the land of Egypt.

I'm so glad the God we worship is the One true God. He has proved Himself over and over, and the Bible records what He has done - and what He will do.

In my personal reading, I concluded Paul's writings, and have started Ezekiel. What a switch to go from books that provided clear direction of how we are to live out our faith to a book that I will understand little of! But, I look forward to the journey. Reading the 1st 3 chapters of Ezekiel this morning just made me realize how grateful I am that everything that was and is and is to come is in His hands. I'm praying for snippets of insight....