little people

"Abandoning little people on the streets since 2006," is the subtitle of an artists blog in the UK named Slinkachu.

Slinkachu places miniature figures in hilarious situations throughout the city streets of London and abroad. Most people passing by would never even notice these miniature little people going about their day. I have recently been thinking of a couple of ways that this artists work could be used as a discussion starter concerning how our words are sometimes used to belittle people. Like the subtitle of Slinkachu's blog, our words can often leave people feeling very small and alone in a dangerous world.

Many passages in scripture talk of how important it is to guard our tongues and not speak evil of anyone. Here are a few:

"Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it." - Psalm 34:12-14

"They sharpen their tongues like swords and aim cruel words like deadly arrows." - Psalm 64:3

"Whoever derides their neighbor has no sense, but the one who has understanding holds their tongue." - Proverbs 11:12

In his explanation of the ten commandments in the small catechism Martin Luther says that not only should we not lie about our neighbors, but we should always look at them in the best possible light. Not so easy is it? On Slinkachu's blog there are multiple scenes were people are either defacing property or creation. Those slides could be used to talk about how words are a way of literally taking the face off of a human being created in the image of God. When someone no longer has a face we feel more free to slander them and dehumanize them. This goes for spoken as well as typed words in our culture.

Many of the scenes this artist has created are very funny and I would encourage youth leaders to take a field trip to the local hobby store with your youth and buy some miniature figures. Then have the youth decide if they would like to depict a biblical scene somewhere in your town with those miniatures. The entire story of King David trying to fit into Saul's armor and fighting Goliath would lend itself perfectly to using miniatures. Maybe the youth want to focus on Jesus' words about little children or recreate the Tower of Babel. You can also buy Slinkachu's books to use as a visual for passing around the class. I am sure there will be lots of ideas so leave space for them to come up with thought provoking scenarios that would cause people to slowdown and take notice. Don't forget to take pictures that can be displayed or handed out as reminders of the lesson.