Here is the first in a series of children’s talks on animals in the bible – #1 a donkey in trouble.
Using the slides (here) ask the children “Who can guess what animal is this is?” That’s right its a donkey, who knows of donkeys in the bible? Do you remember Balaam’s Donkey? Well, Balaam’s donkey was in trouble – just like the donkey in this picture.
Balaam was a kind of prophet who was going to say bad things about God’s people and God sent an angel to stop him. As he was riding on his donkey, the donkey saw the angel standing ready to kill Balaam and moved away. This happened three times unil finally Balaam had had enough and started beating the donkey for being so stubborn. God opened the donkey’s mouth to ask if he normally behaved in this way? When Balaam admitted that he did not, the donkey explained about the angel. Then God opened Balaam’s eyes to see the angel and he realised the donkey had saved him. So, the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth and also Balaam’s eyes.
This reminded me of the passage in Acts when God opened Lydia’s heart (Acts 16.14) and I thought about how this is a picture of what it means to be a Christian.
- Firstly God opens our eyes so that we can see ourselves are we truly are and not as we think we are, we can also see Jesus as he is – in his majesty and power.
- Secondly, God opens our hearts so that we love him and love the things that he loves and hate the things that he hates.
- Thirdly, God opens our mouths so that we can praise and thank him and tell other people what he has done for us.
“Has God opened your eyes, your heart and your mouth?” I asked the children – lets ask God to do just that if he hasn’t already.
faith of our fathers 
I think that’s great the way there are the three openings that God makes. It demonstrates how its a process of God working on us.
I also think that Balaam’s donkey shows that God can use anyone, but more importantly we should be very careful about what we say to people about God: We don’t like it when other people say bad things about us, so saying bad things about God to others is also a bad idea… even if we feel like we are doing God’s work but getting overburdened!