Children’s Sermon

Matthew 5:1-12

Looking Upside Down

Objects suggested: spoon or tree branch

A nuthatch is a small bird that is about as long as the spoon you use to eat your cereal (5 to 6 inches long). There are different types of nuthatches, but they all have one interesting thing in common. Instead of climbing up the trunk of a tree, like other birds, a nuthatch can climb up and also down. When it climbs down a tree it goes headfirst. The nuthatch can also move about on the underside of a branch rather than walk on the top of the branch like other birds do. Doesn’t the nuthatch seem like an upside down bird?

The nuthatch moves around on a tree in this unusual manner looking for insects, nuts, and seeds to eat. Because they move in an upside down way they find food that other birds miss.

There is a lesson to be learned from the nuthatch. Sometimes certain things in our world seem upside down. We see people who are sad, people who are hurt, people who are weak, people who are hungry, people who have such difficult lives. We want everyone to be happy and well and we may question the fairness of it all. But, sometimes the difficulties people experience allow them to see blessings that more fortunate people miss.

In the Bible Jesus teaches that there is hope for these people who seem to have upside down lives. He blesses them and says, “Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven…” We aren’t able to see all that God can see. But, God promises that in the kingdom of heaven all will be made right.

Scripture quotations from the World English Bible