Our Kindergarten class has been wandering in the wilderness for several weeks, and we are about to enter the promised land. A few weeks back, I dressed up like Moses to tell the story of me/Moses striking the rock to get water for the complaining people.

As I walked from the back of the room to the front in my Bible-costume garb and staff in hand, one of the boys in the class raised his hand, stood up and whispered to me loud enough so most everyone could hear, “I know you aren’t really Moses. You are one of our teachers dressed up like him.”

No fooling him.

A couple weeks later, I walked to the front of class without a costume, just my normal clothes. The same boy, with the same whisper and a smile, said, “I remember when you dressed up like Moses.”

There’s a certain element of fun at play in Kindergarten. Fun for the kids and fun for us teachers. It’s a great age because we can do most anything—puppets, dress up, pretend, flannel graph, picture books, games, video—it’s all good. Lorraine and I joke with each other that we’ve never really grown up anyway, so let’s play as we teach. This week we’re going to cross the Jordan River together. Having fun together makes learning a joy. I've enjoyed playing Moses.

One of the visiting pastors from Ukraine shared a different sort of play he engaged in with his children. After he got home from his time with us at College Church and before he moved them to a safer place, they were together in the basement of their home. When the air raid siren would go off, it was a signal for them to play a game of Hide ‘n Seek.

Watching coverage on various news channels, I heard another person in Kyiv say that every time the air raid sounds, she used it as a signal to play a game with her children. These attempts to preserve children in the midst of terror are moving for a Kindergarten teacher like me.

Anita Deyneka (College Church missionary serving with A Home for Every Orphan/Mission Eurasia) has been updating us this week of work to rescue children in Ukraine. Her upcoming prayer letter adds special perspective on the tragedy of Mariupol:

“Mariupol is one of many Ukrainian cities especially close to my heart, as it was a cradle of the movement that began twenty years ago, and then swept across the country, as Christians reached out to adopt and foster orphans in their country. After the collapse of communism this happened as never before, and thousands of parentless children found caring Christian homes in their own country. And now there are more orphans and children injured and dying, casualties of this brutal war.”

That movement spread from Ukraine to other countries and churches and Christian homes around the world. What a remarkable movement of the church to deliver children and bring them into their homes and now even across war zones, becoming hands and feet of deliverance, playing Moses in modern-day Egypts.

Then, as I work on the persecuted church prayer sheet for this week, the Barnabas Aid prayer calendar for Sunday, March 13, reminds me that such needs are not just in Ukraine. Here is the prayer:

“Lord Jesus, we thank you for your unfailing love for children and how you affirm that the kingdom of God belongs to such as them. We pray especially for Christian children who have suffered much through persecution. We lift up 12-year-old Alina and her family from Iraq as she adjusts to life in the UK. Please bring her comfort following the loss of her mother, who was martyred, and after the months of hardship moving from country to country. Please draw near to Alina and other Christian children and establish them in their faith as they face such challenges. May they grow in resilience and learn to trust you more and more."

The unfailing love of Jesus . . . for children, but also for grown ups like you and me.

Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them. Mark 10:15-16

It's a blessing for Jesus to use people like you and me to reach and care for children in big and little ways. Somehow, too, in the darkness of this adult world, we receive God’s kingdom like a child and point others of all ages to the profoundly simple gospel, even a child, especially a child, can come and Jesus will take them (us) in his arms.

Let’s give thanks today that we are all children of God. Today we can come to him like children. Our steadfast loving Dad will take us in his arms.