This Tuesday I began my online Junior Bible class at Mile High Academy by asking my 12 students a simple question: “How are you, really?”
By my tone of voice, the students could tell this wasn’t an ordinary question. I hadn’t seen them for 11 days—the last Friday chapel before spring break. Their life and world had changed dramatically.
One by one, they answered the question with more candor and sobriety than I’d ever heard in their voices.
“To be honest, I’m depressed,” said one student. “It’s just so hard to be away from everyone.”
Several other students shared their own struggle with loneliness.
A few of the students didn’t want to say much, which I understood. I would have been the same way as a junior in high school.
Then one student said: “I just feel like Jesus is about to come back. I don’t know why, but I really feel that way.”
It was interesting. The focus of Junior Bible is Daniel and Revelation. Last semester the students were pretty into Daniel. But this semester they’ve struggled to get into Revelation.
Until now. On Tuesday—even online—they seemed more eager for Revelation than ever.
“Okay,” I said as the final student shared how they were doing. “Let’s turn to Revelation 12.”
“And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains…”
So how are you, really?
—Andy Nash is the pastor of the Littleton Adventist Church. He also teaches junior Bible at Mile High Academy.
