The Looney Bin
I’ll never forget one particular Sunday morning. We were going to learn about Shadrach, Meshach and Obednego. I was always loved telling this story because it was so dramatic and exciting. I had no problem holding their attention with this one. The hard part would be the kids being able to pronounce the names.
I sat the little munchkins around me on the floor and held up my trusty flannelgraphs. I sweetly said “Okay, guys. We are going to learn an amazing story from God’s word. There were once three men.” (And I held up three fingers). “The first man’s name was Shadrach.” The kids excitedly began murmuring “Oh, I know this story…”. I held up two fingers and said “The second man’s name was--“. One the girls named Laney hollered out, “Oooh! Oooh! I know this one! I saw Veggie Tales. His name was Two-shach!” I quickly jumped in, “No, honey. His name was Meshach.” Laney stuck out her lip and said “Uh-uh! It’s Twoshach! I saw Veggie Tales with Rach, Shach and Benny and it’s Twoshach, Twoshach, Twoshach!” I saw her blood pressure starting to rise and said “Okay. Whatever. His name was Meshach but you can call him Twoshach if you want.” Laney looked smugly at her little comrades like See. I told ya I knew what I was talking about.
From that incident the story moved more smoothly. We talked about the men’s dedication to God Almighty and how they refused to bow to anyone but God, even when the king threatened to do mean things to them. Their little eyes were as round as saucers when I told them that the king threw them into a fiery furnace. But guess what? They didn’t burn up. There was a fourth man in the fire with them, sent from God Who kept them safe. The children all smiled when they remembered God’s goodness. I asked them “What would have happened to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego if God hadn’t kept them safe?” Mason hollered out, “That old fire would have burned off their clothes!” I smiled and nodded. Caleb timidly raised his hand and said “Well, that fire would have burned off all their hair.” My smile got even wider and I nodded encouragingly again. Then Laney, whose eyes were brimming with tragedy, said “Oh, and that fire would have burned off Twoshach’s booty!” I held the flannelgraph board in front of my face so the kids couldn’t see me laughing my head off. That was a pretty typical morning in my classroom.