Don’t Fear When Jesus Is Near

Sunday School Chronicles

Me: Besides this, everybody knows Ms. Janay has other jobs. The great part about saying goodbye to y’all every Sunday means I’m one step closer to getting my cheat meal and going home.

Student 1: You’re going to Sonic!

Me: You know it! But here’s the thing about work, it has a start and finish time. Do you think God gets to clock out?

Kids: No!

Me: Really? Why?

Student 2: The world would go crazy!

Student 3: We need God to keep everything in control.

Me: That’s right! God is a god of order not chaos. So this one time, Jesus was just healing people left and right. All day, dude was throwing out miracles. The Disciples were following along, assisting, and seeing all of this happen. So Jesus and the Disciples hop on a boat. Because Jesus is God in a Bod, He gets tired too. The Disciples are chilling and Jesus takes a nap. I love my Sunday naps. What about y’all?

Kid 4: Sunday naps are the best!

Kids: Yeah.

Me: Right? Sunday naps hit different. Jesus is out! While He’s sleeping, the peaceful sea gets crazy. A storm hits. What do you think the Disciples do?

Kids: Freak out. Get scared. Scream.

Me: C. All of the above. So they go to Jesus, who’s still napping like a baby, and wake Him up. They’re like, “So you just want us to die? Clearly you don’t care about us. Keep sleeping bro.” Jesus is not amused. He wakes up from His good nap, tells the storm to pipe down, looks at the Disciples, and says, “Why are you scared? Where is your faith?”

Kids: Whoa.

Me: Yeah. Whoa is right. You’d think that after seeing Jesus literally be Jesus that a storm wouldn’t freak them out. But it did. They were on a boat with the literal Lord and Savior and still thought they were about to die. Where was their faith?

Reflect: Even though we don’t have God in the flesh, we have the Holy Spirit in our hearts to help us have faith and not be afraid. But remember, being afraid is a valid emotion. It’s okay to be afraid. But it’s not okay to think that God won’t be there for you. How can you work on trusting that God is there and isn’t going anywhere?