Now children,
let the curtain rise on vacation bible school.
Close your eyes and clap your hands,
and see in the beginning how empty earth was.
Dark as a raven’s wing.
Soundless as a sleeping bell.
Where is the sun?
Mommy and Daddy?
The garden they call Eden?
The first boy Adam?
The first girl Eve,
before God made days to live in?
Now open your eyes
and see the light where God
put summers and winters,
pillows for our sleep,
and stories in our head called dreams.
Now hear the violins he put in trees,
the drums inside storms,
the songs of humming waves
you sing as hymns.
All the adventures for your lives.
Things for games,
teachers to teach you how to read and write,
and a place to go as one life leads to another,
in God’s house called Heaven.
Where houses have no doors to lock
and summer lasts forever,
except for special times in winter
when the earth is white,
and autumn is gold with leaves,
and spring lets us fly our kites
and no one is tired and sad,
and where we gather around God’s son
called Jesus, before we sleep,
and he tells us what it’s like
to be God’s shepherd,
looking after each of us.
How God feels when he sees us play,
each of us dearly cherished, loved,
and held safely in his heart.