The children are all gathered in the Sunday School room.  Loretta is busy helping her mommy, The SCS Teacher get everything ready before class begins.  There is a lot of talking and playing happening as they all wait for the 9:30 start time. 

Over here Elizabeth and Running Chairs are talking about their plans for a game they want to play on the playground at school this week. 

And over here Barabas and Sam are pretending to wrestle, except because Barabas is so much bigger than Sam, he always wins!

Over here Haman and his little sister Polly are fighting.  Or rather, Haman is teasing Polly and Polly is being a cry baby.  “Ha ha, you’ve got an eye on the back of your head!” teased Haman.  “No I don’t.” cried Polly.  “Mommy said you are not supposed to tease me any more.”

Over here Larry is talking to Bill.  Bill is a dog.  He is Lamar’s guide dog, because Lamar is blind.  Guide dogs are not supposed to be friendly dogs.  Bill must ALWAYS look out for Lamar, so Bill is not paying much attention to Larry’s attempts to be friendly.

No one has noticed the visitor this morning.  Her name is Toquoia and she lives in Harrisburg.  Her family is very poor.  Toquoia feels really out of place.  She feels invisible.  So she is just standing there looking at the floor, not sure what to do.  And she gave a tiny little sound, like this:   “_oh!”

Running Chairs noticed her and said to Elizabeth in a whisper “Boy!  Like, look at her.   She must be like, you know, really poor.”  “Yeah.” said Elizabeth.  The visitor looked kind of familiar to her, but she was having too much fun right now to think about it.

Barabas noticed her.  He thought to himself “I know I SHOULD go over and talk to her, but I’m so big and she’s so little.”   Sam didn’t even notice her.

Currently, Haman was teasing Polly about the flower on her hat.  “Ha, ha!  The flower on your hat died!”  “It can’t die!  It’s plastic!” Polly cried back.

And of course The SCS Teacher and Loretta were busy with class preparation.  Larry saw Toquoia, and decided to go up and stand closer to his mother.

Now, Lamar being blind, could not even SEE the visitor. So HE at least has a good excuse for not noticing her.  But Lamar could tell from Bill his guide dog, that someone new was standing quietly behind him.  And Lamar listened to the tiny little sound that Toquoia made again:  “_oh!”

Lamar thought to himself “It sounds like someone who feels all alone.”  And his heart felt sad for who ever made that sound.  Bill, the guide dog turned towards Toquoia, and so did Lamar, and he said “Hi.  I’m Lamar.  What is your name?”  Toquoia told him her name and asked why he had a dog with him.  Bill started to wag his tail.  Lamar told her about being blind.

Soon it was time for everyone to take their seats for class to begin.  Guess who Toquoia sat next too?  She sat next to the only person in the room who had made her feel welcome.  Toquoia sat next to Lamar (and Bill). 

In today’s Gospel lesson, the Pharisees could not see what was right in front of them, because they were only thinking about themselves.

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