bible competitions

Bible Competitions

The Sunday school was having a bible verse competition. All the children were taking part. They did not announce what the prize was. I suspected it would just be a glorious leather bound bible. There was a lot of ego and prestige to winning. Someone circulated the rumour that the person who said the longest verse would get the prize.

Everyone was learning bible verses by heart. The long psalms, the never ending chapters in Isaiah were all hot favorites.   My son did not appear to be doing anything.

“Aren’t you taking part?”

“Yes”, he replied. “I have asked my grandfather which verse to learn”. He did not appear to be doing much more about it.

I called my father. “Have you given him a verse to learn?”

“Yes, “ said my father, “It is the same verse I recited and won the bible competition when I was in school.”

The day of the competition dawned and all the children lined up. I eyed the long queue with trepidation. I had ferried two other mother’s there., and between us I had 6 children to drive back home.

The long –winded verses got everybody down. Everyone forget, made mistakes, scratched their heads, looked into space, stared blankly, got stuck and repetitive and worst of all, some of them started again from the beginning when they made a mistake. One boy managed to reach the end successfully, only to forget the context, he forgot chapter and verse.

My son was at the tail end. He had refused all help for the preparation. He and his best friend had also once stood in the front of the church and sung an entire  hymn one verse ahead of everyone else. (They  started when the organist was playing the intro.) He was not too popular with the reverend or the Sunday school teachers.

As he stepped forward the reverend glared.

“Jesus wept. John chapter 11 verse 35  “ he announced, bowed and stepped down.

There was pin drop silence.

The judges had a long and heated discussion.

“He is the only one who got everything right.”

“He only said two words.”

“No actually he said six words.’’

“What about the girl who  attempted Esther 8:9”

“How can you even consider her?” She called the month of Sivan ‘Shiva’, she changed satraps to  ‘sandal straps’.

“What about the boy who recited from Isaiah?’’

“He got so tangled up that he mixed up the lines!”

“What about the psalm girl?”

“You are only supposed to recite one verse---- not an entire psalm out of order.“

“We did say recite correctly, not for  the longest time---.”

Yes John 11:35 won the prize.