The Best Teacher
By Lois Parker Edstrom
Objects suggested: hammer, nails, and a short length of soft wood such as pine or fir.
Suppose you want to learn to build things out of wood. Who would be the best teacher? Yes, the best teacher would be an experienced carpenter. A carpenter spends many hours measuring, sawing, and nailing pieces of wood together.
Many of us, when we try to hammer a nail into place, will bend the nail so it doesn’t go in straight or miss the nail altogether. (Let the children try to pound a nail into wood if situation permits. Pastor or teacher may demonstrate.) When you watch a good carpenter work there is no doubt he knows what he is doing. He swings the hammer with power, hits the nail squarely, and drives the nail easily into the wood. He is an authority in working with wood and is able to show others how to do it.
When Jesus lived on earth he was a teacher, and the people who heard him “were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as having authority…” (1:22).
Jesus taught people about the love of God. They could see by the things he did and the things he said that he was an authority. They watched as Jesus healed a man who was sick in his mind. They saw the power of God’s love.
The best teachers are the ones who really know what they are talking about. Jesus is the best teacher to teach us about love.
Scripture quotations from the World English Bible
Copyright 2007 Richard Niell Donovan