On Sunday mornings during Lent 2017, the Sunday school children at Beaver Lake Lutheran Church, Maplewood, Minn., explored parts of Martin Luther’s Small Catechism. The children extended their understanding of the lesson with an art project. To celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, they reproduced Luther’s seal. Luther designed the seal as a visual summary of his theology. Teachers hung the project in the sanctuary for all to see and each week added a new layer to represent a part the Small Catechism.
- On March 5, the children learned about Luther and his role in the Reformation as they designed the multi-colored blue base of the seal. Luther used a “sky-blue field” to symbolize the joy and hope of our faith and in the Spirit as a “beginning of future heavenly joy.”
- On March 12 and 19, the children reviewed five of the Ten Commandments, identified an important idea or words, and designed a petal for the white rose. Each petal represents the child’s reflection on a specific commandment. Luther chose a white rose to symbolize “that faith gives joy, comfort, and peace…for white is the color of the spirits and of all the angels.”
- On March 26, the children added the words of the Lord’s Prayer in concentric layers inside a red heart. The Lord’s Prayer is the prayer taught by Jesus to his disciples and has become an important prayer to the church. It may be one of the first prayers we learn “by heart” and is prayed in all kinds of circumstances. Luther chose a red heart within the white rose to be reminded that “if one believes from the heart he (or she) will be justified.” The color red is symbolic of the blood Jesus shed on the cross, but we also know that the meaning of a red heart is love.
- On April 2, the children added the words, “This is my body … my blood,” to the black cross at the center of the seal. After learning about the Apostle’s Creed, the children wrote the words of the creed on the gold ring that encircles the seal. Luther put a black cross within the red heart to be reminded that “even though it is a black cross which mortifies and which also should hurt us … the cross does not kill but keeps man alive … faith in the Crucified saves us.” The gold ring symbolizes “that in heaven such blessedness lasts forever and has no end, and in addition is precious beyond all joy and goods, just as gold is the most valuable and precious metal.”
