How to Worship God - Introductory Story
Story - William and Gran
William lived with his Gran. He didn't remember his parents, because they had died when he was a baby. His Mum had been Gran's daughter. He did have another special person in his family though, who he called Bear!
Bear was Gran's mother. She lived in a cottage not far away, but it was near to farms and fields and there wasn't much traffic. William lived in the town. His house had no garden.
William hadn't been at school for very long. He was always full of questions about things he didn't understand, and Bear was usually the one who explained things best.
William wanted to know why they had Assemblies at school. Sometimes the teacher called it an Act of Worship. It didn't seem to have anything to do with ships, so William wanted to know what Worship was.
"Why do we go to church?" asked William one day when they were putting flowers on Grandfather's grave.
"To worship God, William" answered Gran, blowing her nose on a tissue.
"What is Worship, Gran? Our teacher at school says Assembly is a 'time of Worship', but I'm not sure what that is."
Gran cut the stems on the flowers to make them shorter. She passed them one by one to William so he could bend down and arrange them in the stone vase on the grave.
"Well, its taking time to stop, and be still and think about things."
"What things?"
"Things Jesus did and said, and the wonderful world we live in. To be thankful for food and water, and homes and families. And to pray to God, and sing about his love for us."
William thought about this as he carefully finished off arranging the flowers. He was going to Bear's tomorrow because it was Saturday and Gran was at work. He'd ask Bear.
"What's worship, Bear," asked William as they walked by the canal.
"Well now" thought Bear, "its telling someone they are 'worth something' I suppose. Who do you think would be worth lots of 'thank you's', William?"
"You?" William replied, "...and my teacher."
"Well, lets stop and look for a moment.
They sat on a fallen tree by the path and Bear got out a notebook and pencil. She started to draw. William watched as Bear drew some trees, then the canal, then the field full of cows and sheep, then some clouds in the sky."
"That's a nice picture" said William, but Bear hadn't finished. In the middle, she drew two tiny people, sitting on a fallen tree trunk. "And that's us!" shouted William.
"And that answers the question!" said Bear smiling. "The one who made all this... the trees, the water, the grass, milk, wool and meat" she said pointing to the sheep and cows, "and the rain and sun... well that's the One who's most worth us saying 'well done' to, and taking time to say 'thank you'."
"D'you mean God?" asked William, taking Bear's pencil and writing G O D on the sky in the picture.
"I do indeed!" said Bear getting up, "and we've just worshipped, William! We stopped to think and to thank God for all he's made."
"Is that why you drew you and me in the picture?" asked William.
"Yes. Its because we are worth something to God that he wants us to remember Him too."
That night, at home, William drew the picture. He knew it wasn't as good as Bear's but that didn't matter. He was pleased with it, and he remembered to put GOD in the picture too.
