Oct 29, 2021
A Path To God
Episode 7 of American Butterfly: Vacation Bible School
“Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word
that comes from the mouth of God.”
— Matthew 4:4, New International Version Bible
Summer in Memphis conjured a humid heat in early May. Once school ended, my brother, sister, and I hoped to go to a sleepaway camp. That never did happen. We were lucky to get a week at the YMCA day camp: hiking, building shelters, shooting bows and arrows. The most fortunate YMCA kids spent the whole summer working their way up the swimming skills ladder from polliwog to guppy, minnow, fish, and shark. A week never got us past guppy. Whether we wanted it or not, we would attend Vacation Bible School when it was in session.
River Presbyterian Church hosted two weeks of VBS each summer. It is easy to miss as a kid, but a bunch of people put in a lot of effort to make each day fun. The church didn’t have a pool. At that time the megachurch movement was just getting started. Pools were found only at YMCA’s, country clubs, Jewish Community Centers, and in well-endowed backyards. We were fortunate, though, to have a good gym, nice fields, and playgrounds.
After crossing the busy street to play on the sports fields, the best part of Vacation Bible School was the Bible verse contest. Traditional Presbyterians believe deeply that the Bible embodies the actual word of God. Whether they argue for infallibility or inerrancy, people take the written words very seriously, often searching out the ancient Greek or Hebrew to gather further clarity or to make an argument. A Bible verse contest encouraged us to begin committing those words to memory and enticed some to jump from their Children’s Bible to the real thing.
Long before our world of pervasive screens, VBS leadership grasped the virtue of visual stimulation, competition, and regular reward. Each camper earned a sticker for every Bible verse recited to an adult. The stickers lined up along the row next to each name. Before dismissal in the early afternoon, each day’s leader was announced and the laggards encouraged to make progress. I might never become a great swimmer, but I could pile up Bible verses!
The first morning was pretty easy: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.” Corinthians 13:4. “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in struggle.” Psalm 46:1. “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.” Second Timothy 1:7. Excellent, a three-sticker start!
To stay ahead of the other kids, you needed to work your way immediately through the verses on the wall. You had to say them quickly, too. The limiting factor was often the time that the adults were able to give you. Too much stuttering might get you only one of the two verses you had memorized.
One week I found myself in a stiff contest with a kid who had an amazing memory. He could read and repeat with little effort. My memory was really not the best, but I made up for it with effort and repetition. I was already well on my way to attributing my own success to “effort” and my opponent’s success to their “talent.” Very adult of me.
By Wednesday we had both worked our way through the list. It was now up to us. Reaping your own verses presented a challenge. The Bible has a lot more long, factual, and hard-to-understand verses than it does short and easy ones. A list of who-begat-who was not good for memorization. Sometimes an adult would even ask you what your self-sourced verse meant.
I read through one of the old Bibles we had at home and came in on Thursday with some winners. I had seen one many times: “For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.
The problem was, the adult I recited the verse to didn’t like the word “begotten.” That, he said, was a translation from the King James version of the Bible. He strongly recommended using the New International Version which read, “For God so loved the world, he gave his only Son…” The discussion on Bible versions was a little interesting, but it detracted from the time I had to deliver my verses. I had to promise to use an NIV Bible for Friday. Despite the delay, by the end of the day, I had a one-sticker lead over Mr. Memory.
That night I found the right Bible. We had quite a few versions in our multi-generational home. I went to work. When I walked into VBS next morning, I felt like I was carrying too many plates in my head. Those verses were ready to fall out at any moment.
The day was a disaster. No teacher had time for me to share my verses. I began to wonder if it might have been intentional on their part. I tried again and again until finally there was a moment in the early afternoon. By then, it was all I could do to get a few verses out without mixing things up. My plan for definitive victory had failed. It would be close.
Before saying goodbye to all of the kids that afternoon, the lead teacher presented the board, and I saw the same number of stickers next to my name as Mr. Memory. A tie.
“You are both winners!” she declared.
I couldn’t stop thinking about it the whole walk home. It was a good thing they were not grading our thoughts for Christian charity.
Driving by River Presbyterian Church the last time I was in Memphis, I could see an array of new facilities added to its impressive campus. I’m sure that Vacation Bible School offers a lot more than kickball and Bible verses today.
Over the last forty years, churches across the nation have become even more deeply embedded in the lives of their members. They provide day care, pre-school, exercise facilities, grade school, and high school.
A majority of citizens in many states say that “Religion is very important in one’s life”: 71% in Tennessee, 64% in Georgia, 63% in Texas, 60% in Virginia, 53% in Florida,… — Pew Research Center
Though the number of Americans considering themselves members of churches has fallen in recent decades, the intensity of the relationship with their church has increased for many.
Better connections are one of the secret recipes for a better tomorrow. Please follow J. Andrew Shelley.
The above is a modified excerpt from the novel, American Butterfly. The story is told through the eyes of a man raised in the South, living in the North, and struggling to understand love in the modern world.
It directly engages recent decades. It embraces the events that have shaped today’s world. And it draws upon the past to help us understand the many sides fighting America’s Culture War.
All through a family story, different and similar to yours and to mine.
