Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: FEAST (07/12/18)
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TITLE: Hot Dog Bun Leaven | Previous Challenge Entry
By Linda Lawrence
07/13/18 -
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“Why? What is leaven?” Six-year-old Sean asked.
“I know! I know, ” Shannon chimed in, obviously proud of knowing more, or rather thinking she knew more than her little brother.
The kids were still at an age that appreciated my unconventional creativity. I thought it would be fun, and educational, to find some way to observe the Feasts of Israel as a family. There must be a reason why God put this calendar of annual events* into his instructions for His family. I didn’t plan to make them an annual practice, but to try at least once, to see what we could learn from them. Since Jesus died on Passover, it seemed like acting it out would be a good way to teach our children about Good Friday. It appeared the Feast of Firstfruits was to be celebrated the day after the Sabbath after Passover. That was the day Jesus rose from the dead! This would be interesting, if I could get my family to go along with it. And then there was the Feast of Unleavened Bread that was woven in and out of the Lord’s Passover. Intriguing.
“Okay Shannon, what is leaven?” Her mouth opened, but nothing came out. She slowly twirled around, lifting one foot after the other before confessing, “I guess I don’t know. . . bread?”
“Well, you’re on the right track. You need leaven to make bread. Leaven is what we put into the recipe to help turn the flour into bread. A little bit of leaven, like yeast or baking powder, spreads into the flour and makes it rise and get fluffy. Otherwise, our bread would bake into a hard rock.” My very unscientific explanation seemed to satisfy them.
I had read about the Jewish practice of cleansing the house of leaven and thought this could be a useful object lesson. “We can ask the neighbors to keep our bread and baking powder and yeast at their house for a week, or at least for today because we’re going to act out cleaning the house of leaven, like God wants us to clean our hearts of sin.”
As we searched the cupboards and fridge for anything with leaven, I secretly held back a hot dog bun to hide.
The children ran next door with their arms full, and gave their slightly convoluted explanation and request for storage space, while I hid the hot dog bun.
Returning, they eagerly asked, “Now what do we do?”
“We’ll wait for Daddy to get home and then you’ll search the whole house together and see if there is any hidden leaven.” Their wide grins encouraged me.
I let Dad in on the plan. Little did I know how our Heavenly Father would aid us in our lesson plan.
I gave Daddy and the children a paper napkin and a small broom, with the assignment to search the house for leaven and if they found any, to sweep it into the napkin and we would burn it outside.
I could hear their shouts when they came upon the hot dog bun. We took the wrapped bread to the backyard and lit a match to the paper napkin. Oh, oh. The dense bun wouldn’t burn. We tried again and again and I felt frustrated that my plan was fizzling when Sean made this profound observation. “Boy, sin is sure hard to get rid of!”
Wow! That covered the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Now, on to Passover.
“Remember when the Israelites were in Egypt and Pharaoh made them slaves and wouldn’t let them go?”
“I know, I know,” Shannon cried out, raising her hand.
“Okay, you tell Sean what happened when Pharoah wouldn’t listen to Moses and God had to teach him that someone had to die, or everyone who didn’t believe God would die.”
“Well. . . Well. . . Well, the first son, not daughter, son! He would die unless they killed a lamb and put the blood on the door. There!”
“That’s right. And God wants us to always remember that Jesus is the one, God’s first Son, who died so we don’t have to die for the times we forget to believe and disobey God.”
Sean, as firstborn son, looked worried. “Who puts the blood on the door?” He quickly started constructing a miniature doorframe - to blotch with catsup.
I think God enjoyed His children’s play.
*Leviticus 23
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You do drift into telling more than painting a picture at times by using body language and dialog, but the more you work on it, the easier it becomes. For example, I might edit it like this: As Shannon budged her little brother out of the way, she lifted her chin upwards. “I know! I know!” Shannon jumped up and down while waving her hand in the air.
Likewise that next paragraph might weigh the reader down a bit. One way to fix it might be make it part of the dialog. After describing leaven, have one of the kids ask why they are doing it and have the Mom's answer be part of that long paragraph of backstory:
Mom scooped the kids into her lap. "Well I thought it might be fun to explore some of the feasts from the Bible. Since Easter is coming up, Daddy and I thought we'd act out what happened during Holy Week."
By adding dialog and using kid-friendly words, this could turn into a great story for kids too. I might have each story focus on just one feast at a time though so it doesn't feel rushed and so the reader doesn't mix up the different feasts. My favorite line in the story is when Sean says that sin is hard to get rid of. That would make a great ending to that story, maybe with Shannon showing her knowledge by saying something like: God sent Jesus to earth to make it easier to get rid of sin, right Mom?
That line is such a great example of how kids get things way more than we know. Plus it left a huge smile on my face. You did a fine job of writing on topic, delivering a powerful message, and making the reader think. Great job!
Congratulations on ranking 3rd in your level and 13th overall! Happy Dance!