Can We Talk?

Can we talk?

“R-i-i-i-n-g.” The bell rang and the last of the children scurried in from recess to find their seats. “Okay class, time to focus. Just a little longer, it’s almost time for lunch,” said Ms. Claibourne standing before the class with her hands clasped together. “Let us continue with religion now. Today we will be discussing and experimenting with communication skills– that is, talking and listening to God. Also, we will explore significant differences and trivial common threads between the Spirit of God and a cell phone.”

There were giggles among the classmates. Loud screams and high pitched voices bounced off the walls and then, a thump from a book being dropped to the floor reached a crescendo. “Okay class, settle down. Let’s get some ideas going.”

Ms. Claibourne looked around the room to see who would be the first to bring out a cell phone. One thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand . . . There it was. “Heee, heee, hee,” laughed Junior showing off his phone to who ever was looking his way. “Junior, why don’t you come up here with that.” Junior looked up with a face that quickly went from a fire flushed red tone to a pale white tinge and he dropped the phone again. “Ms. Claibourne I was just . . .” Ms. Claibourne extended her hand out toward him with her palm faced up. Junior certainly knew the school rules and what that simple hand gesture meant. He picked up his plaything and walked obediently to the front of the class with his blue taped up cell phone in hand. Ms. Claibourne hid a smile as she imagined the thick warn tape was from countless efforts to repair the phone from the many wounds it had received. Junior gave it to his teacher and silently stood before her. Then Ms. Claibourne said in a low voice, “Junior, you know that I should take this to the office where they’ll keep it until your parents pick it up. One more time and you won’t be able to bring it to school for a whole month.” “Yes Ms. Claibourne,” he said sounding and looking defeated. “I’ll just keep this for now and you may ask me for it before the dismissal bell at the end of the day. You may return to your seat Junior.”

Ms. Claibourne looked around the room and decided to start with someone who rarely raised their hand. “Desiree, what can you do with God that you can also do with this cell phone,” Ms. Claibourne asked holding up the badly bandaged instrument. “Talk to Him anytime you want to,” Desiree responded quickly and seemed surprised over her rapid confident comeback. “Very good Desiree.” Then Ronny asked softly and innocently, “What do you do when your minutes run out?” “You pay for more dummy,” retorted Nattie. “Okay Nattie that was a creative response, but we could do without the smart comments, okay?” Ms. Claibourne looked at Nattie for a long moment, and then she finally responded, “I’m sorry Ronny.” “Thank you Nattie,” Ms. Claibourne said sighing lightly. It was rare to have a brother and sister in the class, but at times entertaining to say the least.

“Class, Ronny brings up a very good point. You can run out of minutes with a cell phone but can you run out of time with God?” Several hands went up, “ooooh, ooooh, oooh,” voices came from different sides of the classroom. “Okay, Vangie,” Ms. Claibourne continued pointing to her, “Can you run out of time with God?” “No,” she replied shortly. “Why not?” “Because God is there whenever you want to talk to Him.” “Excellent Vangie.” “See I told ya Marie,” Vangie said pulling on her classmate’s long dark pony tail. “Stop,” Marie cried out.

“Okay John, in what ways are a cell phone and God alike?” “They both have light.” Very good John.” “Angel when would the light go out on the cell phone?” Angel countered with a question, “When the battery goes dead?” “Or when you turn it off. Duh, no electricity,” shouted Albert from the back of the room. Laughter ensued at his comment and his imitation of electricity. Angel turned to Albert and shot him a shoddy stare. Seeing the competition that was building up in Angel’s eyes Ms. Claibourne added, “You are both right.”

“I don’t get it,” asked Kristy. “A cell phone has light but how does God have light.” Ms. Claibourne replied, “Good question, Kristy. Can anyone answer that? Go ahead John you have your hand up.” “God gave us Jesus so we would have light. If we believe in Jesus then we believe in the one who sent Him.”

“Wow John, I’m impressed, who taught you that,” Ms. Claibourne asked. “My grandma told me that I was named John, like John the Baptist. And that he baptized and prepared people for the coming of Jesus, who is the light of the world,” he said with finality. “Yes.” Then Ms. Claibourne, added, “Jesus came to give the world hope of eternity, that’s heaven; and he showed us that by baptism we would have the light, the Holy Spirit of God, within us.”

“Sylvia, does God’s light ever go out?” Sylvia pondered the question for a somber moment and finally replied solemnly, “Yes.” “Why would you think that,” Ms. Claibourne asked puzzled by her response. “Because . . . my Dad said God wasn’t there when my Nana died.” Ms. Claibourne bit her lip and her stomach did a quick flip flop as she watched Sylvia slowly lower her head to hide her emotions. Ms. Claibourne walked over to Sylvia and stood behind her and affectionately and gently placed her hands on her shoulders. “It’s okay honey, let’s talk about it.” The noise in the classroom trickled to a hushed silence as tears fell down Sylvia’s cheeks. This was difficult, Ms. Claibourne thought, but she quickly turned to her faith and sought God immediately for help to find the right words. “Sometimes class, when someone dies or something happens in our lives and we don’t understand it we might feel, for a little while, that God has left us. It might seem like the light of God has turned off inside us. However, when you have great faith and you keep God first in your life, your doubts become less and less in times of despair.” Then a small voice counseled. “My Mom says that God only leaves because we close our eyes to Him,” responded Jerry wisely. “What about when you go to sleep? You close your eyes then,” Kristy bravely took another turn. “Then you dream about Him,” Michael joined in with a response that sounded a matter of fact. “Yes,” Ms. Claibourne beamed inside and out with exhilaration at how much they understood and the many areas they were covering today, “you’ve all made excellent points. God is always there even in your sleep. What’s really important to remember is that He doesn’t ever leave you. But sometimes, not on purpose, we do turn away from Him.”

“Next question. What do you do when your cell phone stops working completely?” Josh shot up from his seat, waived his hands as if preaching to the class and blurted out especially loud, “You pay the bill!” Others laughed at his usual clown like antics. Phyllis then rose from her seat standing erect and sounding very astute added, “You go to the phone company for an upgrade.” Ms. Claibourne smiled at their exposure and comprehension of what should be adult business matters.

“What about God’s light? Is it always on? “Yes,” replied the class in what seemed like unison. “Wonderful,” Ms. Claibourne said feeling accomplished. “Now that you know God’s light is always on, what should you do when it seems that God had stopped working in you?” “Talk to Him again,” answered Mary. “Pray,” added Marco. “Write Him a letter,” Cynthia contributed. “That’s dumb,” Larry uttered. Okay Larry, that’s not nice. Ms. Claibourne paused and her silence prompted Larry’s apology, “I’m sorry Cynthia.” “Thank you Larry.” “Yes, you could write Him a letter. However, many people enjoy writing in a journal, which is what we will be doing.”

Ray raised his hand. “Go ahead Ray,” Ms. Claibourne said recognizing he had a question. “What is a journal?” “Okay, who can tell us what a journal is,” Ms. Claibourne inquired looking around the room for a volunteer and called on her most shy student. “Missy, what is a journal?” “A book of your thoughts,” she said meekly. “Like a diary,” Brenda added. “A little bit,” Ms. Claibourne corroborated lightly. “A journal with God would be like little written conversations with Him and/or thoughts to Him.” “How many times a day can we write in it,” Gina asked. “You may write to Him as many times as you’d like to.” “What if we want to say something to God and we don’t have our journal with us,” inquired Mark. “Then just talk to Him.” “How can I talk to God? I don’t remember ever talking to Him. I’ve never seen Him before,” stated Raquel. “When you talk to God there is something inside you that comes alive and you just know that He’s there. You’ll recognize his presence. Again, you might call that the Holy Spirit. But remember you also need to practice listening to Him too,” Ms. Claibourne added assuredly. “How do we do any of that,” Sarah asked sounding bewildered yet looking quite interested.
“Okay, let’s try something here. I want the first and second rows to stand up and march in place. Great, now the third and fourth rows put your hands on your head and you’ll move them up and down like you are pushing on a hat. Good, now the fifth row, I’d like you to sit in your seats backwards and play patty-cakes with the person you are now facing. Now everyone else put your hands over your eyes and sing row row your boat, except for the last row. I want the last row to come up here to the front. Take a piece of chalk and start writing your name on the board, and say your name over and over. I want everyone to start talking, singing, writing or marching and when I turn off the lights, we will pause for long moment and from that spot where you are at that time I want you to listen to or have a little conversation with God. Then I’ll say go and you’ll talk, write and sing again. Then we’ll do it again and again. Are you ready? Okay. Go!”

Okay. Hector, let’s start with you. A week has passed now, what have you learned since you’ve been listening and talking to God regularly through a journal and meditating in silence? “That you can sit, stand or kneel when talking to God.” “Wonderful. Emmitt?” “That talking is kind of like praying too.” “Dave, what did you realize about your conversation with God?” “That it doesn’t matter where I am or what I’m doing I can talk to Him anywhere.” “Jacqueline, your turn.” “That just because I was busy didn’t mean that He left me, it’s just that I stopped thinking about Him for a little while.” “Tyeas.” “I realized that I could bring Him back anytime I wanted to.” Jasmend, “It was weird because I was talking or praying to God in the car or when I was with my friends, and not kneeling by my bed where I used to only pray.”

Ms. Claibourne noticed that Karen looked a little confused and inquired of her newest student, “Karen what did you think?” “I don’t know. I mean it’s hard to put into words. I just feel . . . good all the time. It’s like He’s there even when I’m not talking to Him.” Frankie volunteered, “I wasn’t as mean to my little sister. I showed her how to talk to God.” “Allison, what about you? What did you experience?” “It wasn’t just one thing. But when my Grandma got sick last week and everyone was crying, I told them to hold hands and I prayed out loud for her and I think it made everyone feel better.” “Do you think God heard,” asked Ms. Claibourne. “Yes, because my Grandma came home from the hospital yesterday.” Wow, Ms. Claibourne thought, this was so much more than I prayed for. “Lord you out did yourself again.”

“R-i-i-i-n-g.” The bell rang and Ms. Claibourne dismissed the class for lunch. She immediately sat down behind her teacher’s desk and faced the empty chairs and began to write:

BEGIN JOURNAL - DEAR GOD: I am always amazed at these young people. Their family experiences, many good yet some emotional and trying circumstances, do have a different effect on everyone. These children are listening and learning even when we think they’re not. I wish their parents could hear them now.

I know that this was a deep subject matter to be understood, however, I know we were blessed by your grace today. This important message seemed to be comprehended by the majority of the class. Today was the perfect example of Your work within us, young and old. That is why Jesus so loved the children, isn’t it? They speak from the heart about love and truth and their uncomplicated and simplistic views on life help adults to see things we’ve closed our eyes to. The work that I do here is worth it, even if it touches just one person. Thank you dear Lord for another fruitful day. END JOURNAL

Ms. Claibourne was now standing in the quiet calm that filled the room and she herself felt His presence at that moment. Surprised by the movement in the far end of the classroom, Ms. Claibourne caught sight of one of her students still sitting quietly. “Candace? Why aren’t you out at lunch with the others? Are you okay,” asked the teacher affectionately. “I’m fine Ms. Claibourne, I was just talking to God about you.” “Oh, okay,” Ms. Claibourne simply smiled not wanting to pry for anymore information. But Candace volunteered, “I told him that I wanted to be just like you when I grow up.” “You did? Well, I’m sure He has His own plan just for you.” “I know He does,” said Candace confidently. “He told me to watch you carefully, because you are part of my plan.”

“Thank you dear God for allowing me to witness your work,” Ms. Claibourne praised Him once again. “You have touched another so young with wisdom through your powerful hands of mercy and grace.”

Inspired by:

Romans 8:26-27

“The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs to deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”