“Lord, teach us…”
May 4, 2016
Can you imagine being in the classroom of the Master Teacher, Jesus Christ, day in and day out? If so, can you imagine what you would ask Him to teach you? It fascinates me that the disciples had seen Jesus perform chemistry lessons (turning H2O into wine), physical education lessons (walking on water), and math lessons (multiplying the loaves and fishes), and instead of asking Him how to do those things, they asked Him, “Lord, teach us to pray…” (Luke 11:1). This request is the only record we have in Scripture of the disciples asking Jesus to teach them something. Had I been a disciple, I imagine I would have been inclined to ask Him how to do the wine or walking on water trick, so why would the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray? I’m thinking it is because they witnessed Jesus praying regularly and they connected the dots and realized a couple of things. They realized that His chemistry, physical education, and math classes were so powerful because He prayed. And I think they realized they needed a lot more prayer in their own lives.
This week is “Teacher Appreciation Week” and it is a great time to reflect on the teachers in our lives. When I was a child, I was fascinated by my teachers. As one example, I adored my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Datola, and I watched her every move. She wasn’t human to me—she was something so much more than that, until the day I saw her shopping in the food store. She was buying groceries and I could not wrap my 5-year-old mind around the fact that my teacher ate food. I thought she was so above eating. But Mrs. Datola was at the head of the class of a long line of teachers who would follow her and impact my life in many ways. I can’t remember making any specific teaching requests of my educators. I just soaked up what they served, but I know that one significant impact they had on my childhood was to inspire me to play “school” many days of summer vacation. Small wonder that my summer vacation became my life vocation!
It’s been some years now that I have been a teacher, and enough years to collect a class of students from around the world. I have graduated from teaching junior high English and Math to teaching teachers! I hope they see something in my life that would spur them on to ask, “Teach us to teach….”
Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to all of those who have taught me and continue to teach me (and that includes my students). And Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to all educators everywhere! May our prayer be, “Lord, teach us!”