Rhubarb Leaves

Prepare ahead: obtain a stalk of rhubarb with the leaf still attached.

One of my favorite things about this time of year is that I have rhubarb growing in my back yard. Some people don't like rhubarb, but I think it is wonderful. Rhubarb is also known as "pie plant. You can cut off the leaf and throw it away, then cut the stalk into small sections. It makes wonderful pies when mixed with sugar, spices and thickening, and baked in a pie crust.
The leaf is always cut off, because it is poisonous. How do you think that people first figured out long ago that the stalk could be eaten, but the leaf was poison?
(One of the children will probably answer that someone ate a leaf and either got sick or died.)
Right...that's probably how it happened. Now we could send a leaf to a lab and have it analyzed to figure out exactly what is in it, but long ago, there were no labs to figure things like that out. Someone did probably get sick or die from eating rhubarb leaves.
Suppose you were there when it happened, but you never told anyone, and didn't say a word, when someone else tried to eat a leaf? That would be wrong, wouldn't it. If there are "dos and don'ts" that are helpful and protect others from harm, we should tell them and spare them the injury.
In the Old Testament, God gave lots of laws to His people. Along with the other instructions, He made it clear that these rules were to be shared. In Deuteronomy 4:1, it says, "Hear now...the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live." Later in verse 9, this is added, "Teach them to your children and to their children after them."
When Jesus died on the cross for us, He freed us from keeping all the strict laws of the Old Testament. But the idea still holds, that when we know something that is true and helpful, we should share it with other people.
We know that Jesus died for us to pay the price for our sins. We know that if we ask Him to forgive us and come into our lives, we can find real peace and joy. That's wonderful news that is helpful to people who are sad and in need of someone to love and comfort them. We should be sharing it. Don't keep it to yourself!