Using Bezalel's Annointing
by Janna Christenson
Long ago there was a need for super cool, beautiful art and craftsmanship to create a place where the One True Sacred Creator of the Universe to manifest Himself through a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. God, through the Ruach HaKodesh, filled a man named Bezalel (Exodus 31) to have witty invention, supernatural skills in metal working, carving, creating embroidered florals and angelic beings with linen and more.
Creating Ambience
YOU have access to that same anointing to create crafts, parable style snacks to underscore the MAIN THING, simply by asking for it. If you don’t ask, you don’t receive (James 4:2-3)
I can’t take credit for the crafts I do with Preschoolers and Elementary children, even teens. I just can’t, I’m not that good. But, using Bezalel’s example, we create an environment to teach at home or at shul. For Shavuot, I hang paper doves all around the ceiling, lay white linens on the tables (with clear plastic covers for the craft) and use a defuser with Frankincense and myrrh to speak to their senses.
WHAT ARE CRAFTS AND SNACKS REALLY FOR?
Snacks are a great teaching tool. For Shavuot we’ve used snacks reflecting Mt. Sinai (mountains of peanut butter, pretzel and raisin mountains) or the sweetness of God’s laws (graham cracker torahs with honey “CHAI” letters drizzled on two “tablets”). But the best reason for snacks is to keep their mouths quiet while you’re making the MAIN THING THE MAIN THING.
And crafts…well, they are the dress rehearsal for the MAIN THING and it’s the last thing they do before they leave the room because it generally has a game woven into the craft. Leave a child laughing and wanting to stay and you’ll have an avid listener who wants to come back over and over again. Yeshua taught me that.
Our Shavuot crafts can be pretty sciencey with Mt. Sinai as a “volcanic” eruption, and the people telling Moses to be the one to listen to God and not them. Or we have set up fans blowing with crepe paper and red, orange and yellow streamers for the mighty rushing wind and flames of fire. We’ve done headbands with tongues of fire for preschool, and prayer over each child asking for the Ruach to lead our prayers as we speak life over each child while the other children listen so intently to see what the Ruach will say through each prayer. It may not be a traditional craft or activity but it’s powerful and it feels like a Game. And it really is the Game of Life….eternal Life.
These are just a few examples specific to Shavuot…and there’s more opportunity for each Holiday through the year.