separated by God

The kids’ musical and dramatic Christmas extravaganza was presented tonight at church. Bunches of wee ones from k-6 participated. There were plenty of songs and smiles. There was also a concurrent puppet show woven in with the songs and an interpretive movement bit. Everything was well done and well received, but for me the highlight of the night was a verbal stumbling by the puppet apostle Paul. Apostle Paul was a tiny, bald man with a black beard who sat on the edge of the puppet curtain while he casually chatted with the interviewer. While he was describing his missionary journeys, he meant to make a statement about bringing the good news to people who were “separated from God by sin”. Instead, he said, “separated from sin by God.” I thought it was apt to focus on his accomplishment as much as his motivation. The intended statement describes the people whom the Apostle found when he arrived, but the spoken statement describes whom the Apostle left when he moved on.