Scooby-Doo and Other Mystery Hunters

Scooby-Doo and Other Mystery Hunters
Children have this natural curiosity and love of mystery that is lost on most adults.  Adults want answers…all the time.  I’m not sure who started Wikipedia (I’m sure google could tell me), but my guess is it was someone who not only wanted answers, but thought they knew them as well. 

In a world where there are so many questions…
“Why should I blend up my spinach and drink it when I can simply eat a salad?” (Just to name one!)
…we are always looking for answers. 

What if we didn’t look for answers as much as we searched our hearts and minds for questions.  This is the thought around “It’s a Mystery” - our fall series in PathFinders.  This fall we will explore what it means to ask questions of God, about God, and about His Word.  We will embrace the fact that God is a God of answers, but also a God of mystery. 

This past Sunday we learned that God holds both sides of that- answer and mystery- in perfect balance.  There is tension and therefore power in having faith in a God that can be both.  If we had all the answers, we’d assume that we are just like God ourselves, but on the other hand, if we had only questions, we’d stay confused.  This is God’s perfect balance.  He gives us answers through His Word, through our time with Him in prayer, and through the Holy Spirit, while also remaining a great mystery.  After all, His ways are not our ways; His thoughts are not our thoughts.

So what does it mean to be a mystery hunter in the Spiritual sense?  Scooby- Doo…Where are you?!

For those true Scooby-Doo fans (the original “Scooby Doo- Where are you?” is the only one that counts) there is no doubt that you understand the concept of a hidden in plain sight answer to a mystery.  Who doesn’t remember Miner Forty-Niner scaring off employees and guests at the Gold City Guest Ranch?  [Cue the chase scene music in your head]  Even the bumbling mystery gang was able to catch the real culprit...old Hank in costume. 

Many of the things we find mysterious about God may actually be hidden in plain sight.  We may simply be asking the wrong questions… or asking no questions at all.  There is no easy google answer to how, why, and when God works.  There is no Wikipedia contributor, co-contributor, or fact checker (does Wikipedia have those?!) that has all the answers. 

There are questions, and there is One who answers.  There are answers, and there is also mystery.  Just like Scooby-Doo, we may discover by chance (or more likely through a Holy-download) the answer to one mystery, only to learn that there is a new one to investigate. 

Ask the questions, look and listen for the answers, and then…embrace the mystery.

This Week’s Announcements:
PathFinders Camping Day- Saturday, October 18th
If you have a child in 1st-5th grade, this day is for them!  Sign up by clicking on the link in this week’s email update.  Registration is required and will close out (no exceptions) on the registration dead-line.  Payment of $15 per child is due at time of registration.  **If you are interested in being one of the adult drivers and/or chaperones for this event, contact me at penny@stonebridgemarietta.org

Help still needed!
We are so blessed to have more than 80(!) volunteers who said YES to serving your children.
Even with that incredible number, we are still in need of help in certain rooms/areas. 
Our specific needs are:
An adult male to lead 3rd-5th grade boys as a small group leader at 9am
Nursery help at 9am and 11am 

What God is Teaching Us:
This section will have links to the previous Sunday’s lessons.  Feel free (I encourage it!) to open, read, and review with your children.  Click on the links below to view our lessons from 9/21/2014. 
This link is no longer available

Funny Things Kids Do and Say…
While doing a school project on Egypt, one little guy was so fascinated by the culture, he decided that he must have actually lived during that time.  He believed he may have been born then.  When his parents questioned him further, saying- “you were not reincarnated and you couldn’t have been born then and still live now…so, huh?!”  After some thought, he acquiesced by saying… “I meant my ansisters lived then!”  {That’s not a typo- ansisters to a five year old is ancestors to us}