Lots of those precious moments ...

Matthew intently making origami presents for his friend, Sierra, who is soon coming to Michigan to visit.

Emma cracking up because I was trying to get a good picture of her in her cute outfit--the skirt is actually a SKORT (shorts are attached).

Me and Matthew having a nice hug … what a sweetheart.

Christopher building and building and building with LEGOS! He was very pleased with all of his creations! They are wonderful, Christopher!

Our Bible story tonight was: MOSES MEETS GOD and it was SO good. I learned so much from studying this week for this lesson! I forgot to photograph the kiddos finished paintings this week, but here are the illustrations that I got off the internet.

Moses kills the Egyptian who is beating
the Israelite … thinking NO ONE
has seen!

So after Moses grew up as the prince of Egypt, he went for a walk one day to see "his people." He did not like what he saw and became very angry when he saw an Egyptian beating up an Israeli slave. Moses killed the guy thinking no one had seen him … but God always sees, doesn't He? Plus, see the guy peeking his head from around the corner? A person saw the murder and spread the news. Moses had to run for his life! He was 40 years old at the time.

"Moses! Moses" the angel of the LORD
called from the burning bush.
"Here I am" replied Moses

Moses ran away all the way to Midian (present day Saudi Arabia) where he met the priest of Midian and his seven daughters. Moses rescued them from some mean shepherds and helped them to water their flock. Moses was brought back to their family where he lived for awhile and then was given one of the daughters to marry. One day while Moses was way out in the wilderness "near the mountain of God" he saw a bush on fire but the fire was not burning up the bush! Moses came closer but then a voice spoke to Moses--it was GOD!

Who shall I say has sent me? asked Moses
Tell my people, "I AM the God of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob."

As I was telling this beautiful story, Matthew had already finished his painting and came to sit on my lap. I have been praying that I could demonstrate more love to Matthew on a regular basis. It was so good to have him cuddle up as I was teaching. Ems was painting so seriously, mixing her colors to get just the right blend to paint the sandy desert … Christopher was working on his painting too. When I got to the part where God told Moses to go back to Egypt and tell the leaders that God had sent him, Moses asked God--"Who shall I tell them has sent me?" And God answered, tell them "I AM" has sent you. And we talked about the wonderful meaning of "I AM" … not I WAS … not I WILL BE (although both are true), but "I AM THE ONE WHO IS" … Jehovah God! The One who has always existed, who made EVERYTHING, who never changes! I was reading along in my notes, and Matthew was reading out loud with me and my very next sentence was one of our memory verses, but before I could recite it, Christopher jumped in and said, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." WOW. I had the word "is" circled in my notes and Matthew put his finger on the circled word and said, "IS" not "was." Emma looked up and smiled. It was one of those very precious moments ...

Since we had talked about Moses' staff turning into a snake, I retrieved the two walking sticks my father carved years ago and the boys pretended they were Moses (Matthew) and Aaron (Christopher), and then Ems came running in with my blanket over her head pretending she was Miriam! Aren't these funny pictures?