We began by asking class 6M to share what they had learnt about Jesus this week, building on from what we had learnt about John the Baptist last week. A small group of children confidently shared what they had learnt through a visual story map. it was a great start to our assembly and got us thinking about what it would really mean to leave everything to follow Jesus.
Following is a strange thing, and we considered how people do this in many different ways and how in the animal kingdom there are some fantastic examples of this.
I shared with the children the amazing sight that happens each evening in the fields near my house at the moment. Its always starts small, but by the end there are a few thousand involved. The event is caused as starlings gather to perform a murmuration, before they settle for the night in the reed beds. It is as if they have practised the movements for many weeks, as the few thousand birds move and turn in the sky, all in perfect timing and co-ordination. It would certainly get four tens from the Strictly judges! The event is regularly punctuated by the arrival of a Sparrow Hawk or Merlin, who are clearly seeking an evening meal. The impact on the birds is quite incredible, they bunch into a dark mass, moving as one to provide a natural defence against the predators. Then, finally they bring the show to an end, as if in a preplanned move, all at once they will dive from the sky, following each other into the reed beds, where they remain overnight. It is a truly amazing spectacle.
It struck us in assembly that a decision to follow someone has an impact, just like the birds in the sky. For the early disciples the impact was the decision to leave everything to follow Jesus, it changed their lives and in our moments of reflection we thought about the impact that God has on our lives. Can people see the difference that our decision to follow God makes?
Our final prayer asked God to help us to live in the way that He calls us to, so that others may see and know that we have chosen to follow Him.
