The woman who quit VBS

'Tis the season for VBS. (That's' Vacation Bible School for you Christian culture illiterates.) There was a woman in a certain local church who headed it up for years. When the calendar rolled around to February, you could count on her getting a call from the powers that be: "Time to plan VBS again." She would always reply, "Let's get a prayer meeting. Let's expect big things." But the prayer meeting idea sank like a lead balloon and the lady was disappointed.

Meanwhile, the powers were thinking along other lines: "We need to come up with ways to let the community know we're here." The changing sign in front of the church tells it all. The passing motorist gets a fix on it without ever meeting a soul: "PRESCHOOL REGISTRATION BEGINS"; "FLEA MARKET SATURDAY"; "VEGGIETALE SUNDAY NIGHTS"; "SPAGHETTI DINNER." They even got a float in the Fourth of July parade, and people to hand out bottles of water.

One year the lady decided she wasn't doing it anymore. She felt she couldn't do a good job running VBS if it wasn't going to be bathed in prayer. She cited 2 Chronicles 7:14:

"If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land."

Jesus, being hungry, spotted a fig tree that had "advertised" itself with great green leaves. This might be just the thing for what ails me, He thought. I should be able to get fed here. But when He went over to the tree, he found it to be without fruit. He ended up cursing it, which is only natural because it's not the adverts that are important, after all. Once you get the poor and the starving and the blind to come, it is important that you have something to give them when they get there.

To hear commentaries by Andrée Seu, click here.