Okay, my son spent last week in Vacation Bible School with my nephew. I’ve long maintained that VBS is a colossal waste of time, and children learn nothing from it. This opinion is based on my personal VBS experiences as a child. You play a lot, eat some snacks, maybe learn a song about Jesus. All in all, rather boring, but he seems to enjoy it, so I let him go.
He brought home the strangest craft project, though. According to him, the group was directed by their VBS teacher to create it, so I know he didn’t think this up himself. The craft is a small foam rectangle that resembles a graham cracker. Atop that is another foam rectangle that looks like a chocolate bar. On top of the chocolate bar are two foam “marshmallows”, stacked one upon the other. The marshmallows are decorated so that they resemble a bumblebee, complete with little wings and antennae stuck on them. The overall effect is of a marshmallow bee perched on a S’more.
Now what the heck does this mean? And what does it have to do with Jesus or Vacation Bible School?
My brother-in-law, genius that he is, insists that it means “Be(e) S’more Like Jesus,” but somehow that doesn’t seem right. Opinions? Ideas?
It’s probably just what it looks like, a bee. Sometimes, the lessons taught at Vacation Bible School might just be about working together and sharing to make things, rather than the things themselves. When your nephew looks at his bee, he may remember those lessons. They really do all kinds of projects these days. See this page: Vacation Bible School (VBS) 2020 Crafts and Activities.
I once went to Vacation Bible School with a friend. We made an ice cream sundae out of a cotton ball and a red pompom and a little plastic cup. There were some other things too. It didn’t mean anything AFAIK.
Sometimes, a bizarre little craft is a bizarre little craft. Fun to make, takes up some time…
I understand that this odd little arts and crafts project probably has no real underlying meaning. I’m sure it was just busywork for the kids. I was really looking for responses that were more of a humorous nature, speculating on what the hypothetical “message” of the project could be, such as my brother-in-law’s interpretation in the OP.
I only went to sunday school a couple of times with a friend (my parents are atheist). I remember being fed so much sugar I was bouncing off the walls. In one morning we had
cupcakes with extra frosting
handfuls of the little marshmallow bits from count chocula and lucky charms
suckers (three each)
gum
Then we were told to go sit in the big church and wait for our parents to be done. Baaaad idea.
After Moses had been floating in his ark on the Red Sea for 40 years, he released one of his bees to fetch an olive branch and prove that dry land nearby. The bee reminds us of the chocolate, graham crackers and marshmellows the Israelites had to do without.
Having participated in and taught many a VBS - I wouldn’t dismiss your BIL’s idea entirely. It’s right up there with many of the “brilliant” themed crafts that I either did or helped kids finish.
OTOH, it might not mean anything - sometimes, we just did crafts for the sake of doing crafts. It didn’t mean anything other than “both the children and the leaders need a mental rest and the kids seem to like putting glitter on things - why don’t they do that for a half hour?”
They get snacks?!?! We didn’t get snacks. One year my mom was the craft teacher. Take a bar of Dial soap, stick 4 toothpicks in it. Ta da! A Barbie/G.I. Joe coffee table. :rolleyes:
Sometimes, the lessons taught at Vacation Bible School might just be about working together and sharing to make things, rather than the things themselves. When your nephew looks at his bee, he may remember those lessons. They really do all kinds of projects these days. See this page: 