Last night, I was in what, to my sense of scale, was a megachurch. It met in what used to be a Target store, was huge, had a gymn and a big room for weight machines and treadmills, etc. I was in a room with a shelf full of Sunday School aids for young children. Out of bordom I started flipping through a 52-lessons workbook.

The first lesson was entitled “ten gifts” and it involved putting writing on pieces of paper and boxing them, wrapping them like they were birthday presents, and delivering them in a bag over one’s shoulder as if the teacher was Santa Clause.

The writing, of course, was the ten commandments from Exodus 20. These are God’s gifts of grace, the children were to be taught, which allow us to serve Him and live in peace with one another.

The church was MO Synod Lutheran and the publisher was Concordia House. Luther’s catechisms continue to bear fruit.