When we look at this text from Genesis 18. When I was taught this text when I was a young child, I remember this text being very very sterile in the sense of, here is an example of Abraham extending a sense of hospitality. Here we see how great Abraham and Sarah are in serving their food, and welcoming these strangers. That's a very important message. Indeed, and that's clearly one of the possibilities in the text. But what I'd like to do together with you, is really ask additional questions. Look at other dimensions of this text and the educational implications, because I think that this text raises certain types of tensions as well. I want to try and consider how do we raise these tensions in ways that will really pick the curiosity of the children, which I believe they can. At the same time make it much more exciting, interactive, and much more colorful than simply trying to give across one type of monotone message about Abraham and Sarah's greatness as hosts. So, let's take a look at the text and the possibilities. Okay. So, here are some of the questions that I would like to suggest, you might want to consider in addition to the obvious ones that I just mentioned. One is, what's the role of the aim of the people in this text? Now, obviously, the commentators identify them as angels, but that is not explicitly stated in the text. Now, does that matter that they're presented here as people? What's their role in this whole story? Why are they testing Abraham and Sarah? Are they trying to predict how they will respond, Abraham and Sarah to this great news? What is going on here? Is it fair what they're trying to do? Two. What does Abraham doing, staring outside? Isn't simply, what's the message here? Is Abraham simply a person who wants to invite people in or maybe he's caught in between the tent and the outside. He feels attention between trying to be totally in sealer and trying to search for something outside. This image of petticoat oil at the opening of the tent, as it says in the first verse the tent door, "I believe that if you allow children to understand and to explore the multiple possibilities of what it means the tent door not inside, they're outside." I think from my experience children can offer some very very creative and interesting possibilities. Three. We see in this story how Sarah responds. We see in verse, we see that Abraham hastened onto the tent and says, "Make everything ready," et cetera, et cetera and everything will be fine. Abraham and Sarah were old, and Sarah wasn't ready for this and Sarah laughed at herself. Now, there's different examples here of laughter. What is the difference between Abraham's laughter on the one hand and Sarah's laughter on the other hand? How come we automatically assume that Abraham's laughter here is something legitimate, or something natural, or something healthy? On the other hand, Sarah's laughter here is condemned. What is the all of that about? We can question children about different forms of laughter and how they view laughter in their daily lives? Do they see these different types of forms of laughter? One which can be a sense of joy, appreciation, and a different type of laughter can really reflect suspicion or some type of skepticism. I think that this opens up a lot of different possibilities which children would be very happy and excited to explore. Finally, what about Abraham and Sarah's relationship? What do we learn here about their relationship? They aren't speaking to each other, but rather they're both in seclusion. Does that tell us something about their relationship? What does that tell us about how they relate to God? Do they do it independently or can they do together? I do have one additional point to share with you, and I think that this is a critical one. If you look at the story carefully, there are whole bunch of, I would call them lies inherent in the story. One of the clear ones is where Sarah denied saying, "I laughed", she says in verse 15. Then, Sarah denied saying, "I laughed not", for she was afraid, but she clearly lied. Now, what's lying all about? Is it legitimate to lie? Is it legitimate to lie when you are fearful, when you are scared? I believe that this is a real existential question that young children as well as all the people face on a daily basis. This is an opportunity, this text is an opportunity to raise that question to the surface and help children engage in possible understandings of what laughter is all about? What is lying all about? What moves us sometimes to lie because of fear? Is that natural? Is that something to be condemned? Is that just something which we engage in, because that's part of life? These are some of the questions that I believe surface beyond just the usual from what I'm aware of, typical type of understanding of how the story is presented to young children. I want to encourage us to think beyond the simple, to think beyond the straight forward, and to really delve into these questions in meaningful ways, all the while being tied to the Biblical text.