Teaching preschoolers in Sunday School is not a one-hour, one-day-a-week process. Neither is Sunday School a one-year relationship that ends with annual promotion. A long-time teacher of preschoolers recalled such a relationship.
One Sunday at the beginning of a new church year, the teacher saw a little boy enter her room. She thought, “This little boy has been in our church since he was a baby.”
The little boy came regularly to Sunday School that year. When he promoted to the first grade department, the teacher knew she would miss him. She was glad she would still see him at church. She watched him grow and rejoiced when he was baptized, but was sad when the family moved a few years later.
Because she was friends with the boy’s family, they kept in touch. She looked forward to the school pictures she received each year. One day she learned the family was moving to a nearby city. She was so excited when she went to one of his high-school football games. Just for awhile, she had to cheer for his team even though her son was on the opposite team! The teacher knew when he graduated from high school and when he attended college. She looked at a photograph of him in his college baseball uniform and remembered when she had watched him play in Little League.
One day the teacher opened her mail and found a wedding invitation. Of course, she would go to her former pupil’s wedding. As he introduced her to his bride, he said, “This is my kindergarten Sunday School teacher. She has prayed for me through the years. I know she prayed for you, too, because she prayed for the girl I would marry.”
A few years later, the “little boy’s” mother called to tell about the birth of a grandson. The little boy this teacher had taught now as a father himself. She didn’t get to see him or his family because they had moved a long distance away; she was always glad to have news about him, and often wondered what other plans God had for him.
The teacher had an assignment to travel to the place where the little-boy-now grown now lived. She called his mother to talk about her plans and get his telephone number. They were both surprised to learn they would be there at the same time. The mother told the teacher some good news. “He will be ordained to the ministry. I wish you could be there.”
The teacher knew she had to leave before the Sunday evening service but was glad she would be able to go to their home and see him once again. Sunday arrived, and with it came a change in plans. The teacher’s group could not leave until Monday morning. So, on Sunday evening, the teacher joined the “little boy” and his family to celebrate this special time in his life. She heard him say that his kindergarten Sunday School teacher was present.
She heard the pastor talk about the people who had influenced the young man’s life through the years. The teacher thought, I taught him in Sunday School for one year, but our relationship has continued for many years.
I know this story is true because I am that teacher. The “little boy” is now pastor of a church in Texas.
(reprinted from Sunday School Leader, LifeWay, October, 2001)
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