THINK TOGETHER
Point out things around you in the house that are heavy. Are the heavy things in your house also the important things?
READ TOGETHER
There’s a very important word in the Bible that we need to try to understand. That word is GLORY. In the Bible, the word glory is also the same word for heavy. Many times (but not always) the heavy things are the important things. So the word glory means more than just being heavy. It means important. Something has a lot of glory if it is very important or special to us. If it brings us joy or makes life worth living.
The Bible says that everything has some amount of glory. Everything God created is special, and good, and important. A bug. A horse. The stars. Us. It all has glory. The Bible says that of all the things God made, we have the most glory. We are the most special and important. And we love to feel special and important and so we try to do things or get things that make us feel good about ourselves. We try to get more glory. Can you think of ways that a person might try to get more glory, or to feel good?
The Bible also says that there is someone even more glorious than us? Do you know who is the most glorious in all the universe? That’s right, God is! God is the most special. The most important. The most beautiful and amazing. All the glory in everything else comes from him.
In our Bible story we have seen the Hebrews make it to Mount Sinai to meet with God. God is making promises to his people and they are making promises to God. Promises to love him, and trust him, and worship him.
But it only took a couple days for the people to break that promise to God. While Moses went up on top of the mountain to talk to God, the people down below started to make an golden idol that looked like a cow. Then they worshiped that fake cow. It might have looked like this:
Why would they do that? Because they wanted glory. They wanted something that was important and special to them, and something that would make them feel important and special too.
But God was very angry with his people. Why? Because they replaced God with something else. They settled for the glory of a fake cow over the real glory of God. They made that idol more important than God.
So Moses went back up Mount Sinai to talk to God. He prayed to God and asked God to forgive the people for their sins. And then he asked God for something else. Listen to this prayer that Moses prayed on the mountain:
Exodus 33:18-19. 18 Moses said, “[Lord] Please show me your glory.” 19 And [the Lord] said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
Moses knew what the people needed. They needed to be reminded of how glorious God is. How important he is. How special he is.
And when Moses prayed, did you notice how God described his glory? He called it his “goodness.” His “grace.” His “mercy.” God is saying that he is special and important because he is good, and kind, and forgiving, and loving.
Moses got to see a little bit of God’s glory that day. But years later the whole world would see all of God’s glory when Jesus came to earth. Jesus is not only the most special and important, he is the most good, and kind, and forgiving, and loving. He is the most glorious.
So today let Jesus be the most important thing in your life. Let him love you. And let yourself trust him. Why? Because he alone is always good, and gracious, and merciful, and kind.
Because of Jesus I know I can trust God more than anything or anyone else.
With Jesus I can show others the glory (the goodness and grace) of God.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
Make up “faith statements” that fill in the blanks of this sentence:
Jesus is better than ________, because Jesus is ________.
Use your sentences to talk about idols and how Jesus is more glorious than any idol. Idols don’t love you back, only Jesus/God does.
And here’s a good song to sing along to.
PRAY TOGETHER
Jesus,
You are the best thing in the world. The most glorious one. You will always love me and never leave me. Help me to never put anything above you in my heart.
Amen.
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