Lectionary Links (NL): October 13, 2019
19th Sunday After Pentecost
Year 2: October 13, 2019
A Mother for Choco by Keiko Kasza
(Written for ages 2-5)
Comment: Choco is a bird looking for his mother. He goes to various animals, who look nothing like him, before he finds Mrs. Bear. She wants to include Choco in the family she has created by taking in many different animals. This story illustrates that not all families are made through biological connections; many families are created by choice. Ruth chooses to remain with her mother-in-law, Naomi, even though there are many factors that should prevent this: Naomi and Ruth’s people (the Israelites and Moabites, respectively) are enemies, Ruth would be more secure if she remained in her own country, Naomi cannot provide for Ruth the way a new husband could. Still, Ruth makes ones of the most stunning pledges of loyalty in all of scripture – despite their differences, Ruth chooses Naomi to be her family just as Mrs. Bear chooses Choco. This is a great opportunity to talk with children about adoption and the fact that some families are made up of people who don’t share the same physical features, but who have other things in common. This story also helps us see that all people should be included in God’s family regardless of the things we use to distinguish ourselves from each other (geography, physical features, belief systems, just to name a few).
Thanks to Joshua Andrzejewski for writing the Year 2 Narrative Lectionary Links. Joshua is chaplain for the pediatric and women’s health units in the VCU Medical Center in Richmond, VA.
Lectionary Links (NL): October 13, 2019 by Storypath is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
