God's story: worship.
So part of God's story is about worship, and it goes like this.
Worship is showing God we love him, because he's the most important thing.
It can look like lots of different things, but what matters is that
you're focusing on God with your mind, your heart, and even with your body.
That's what a guy named David did.
David was king of Israel and was really famous for defeating Goliath,
making plans to build a huge temple for God, and leading the Israelites to victory in battle.
He was a powerful and important guy.
Well, Israel's enemies had stolen something that was really valuable.
And one day King David's army came back from a battle, and they had gotten it back.
They were marching and playing music in the streets.
It was like a parade.
And because he knew God had blessed them, David started to dance in front of everyone.
It must have been kind of silly to see king David, a great warrior, dancing in the streets.
Even his wife said she didn't think that's how a king should behave.
But David said, "I did it to honor God. I will celebrate before the lord."
David didn't care if worshiping God made him look funny to other people,
as long as it made God happy.
Because to David, God was the most important thing.
We can also show God he's the most important thing to us by being generous.
Like in the story of the widow and the two mites.
One day, Jesus and his followers saw some people who were tithing, or giving money, at the temple.
Some people had a lot of money.
They were able to give more money than other people, and they were kind of showing off.
But Jesus pointed out a poor woman whose husband had died.
She came up to offer two mites, or tiny coins, to give at the temple.
It was way less than what the rich people were giving.
But Jesus said, "What I'm about to tell you is true.
That poor widow has put more into the offering box than all the others.
They all gave a lot because they're rich, but she gave even though she is poor.
She put in everything she had. That was all she had to live on."
Jesus was saying that what matters isn't how much we give or how impressive it is to others.
The most important thing is that we're worshiping God.
Jesus noticed that the widow gave up everything she had because she was worshiping God.
We can also worship God by sacrificing, or giving up something valuable, for someone else.
That's what Jesus's friend Mary did when Jesus was at her house having dinner.
Mary had a fancy jar of really expensive perfume.
She went right up to Jesus, broke the jar and poured the expensive perfume onto Jesus's head.
Then she kneeled down in front of Jesus and used her tears and her hair to wash his feet.
People may have thought it was a huge waste of money to use so much perfume like that
or even thought it was weird for her to wash Jesus's feet with her hair.
But Jesus said, "Leave her alone. She has done a beautiful thing for me."
See, Jesus knew he was about to make the ultimate sacrifice to rescue everyone.
And later when he was arrested,
tried and put to death, he could remember what Mary did for him out of worship.
Now we may not dance in the street or give away
all our money or pour out a bunch of fancy perfume,
but there are lots of other ways we can show God we love him.
Some people use their creativity to make art that worships God.
Some people use their minds to find ways to help others.
And some people even give their time to serve their neighbors,
because Jesus said, "The greatest commandment besides loving God is to love others."
These are all ways to tell God he's the most important thing.
The bible says, "Offer yourselves as living sacrifices to God.
This is your true and proper worship."
And that's a little of what the Bible says about worship.
So in case you missed it, here's the quick version.
Worship is telling God he's the most important thing.
David worshipped by dancing.
The widow worshiped by giving all her money away.
Mary worshipped by giving something valuable to Jesus.
We can all worship in lots of different ways.
And that's a part of God's story.