Bubbles

A Hearthside Gathering

On childlike humility, active faith, and the invitation to participate.

The adults smiled.

The children ran.

One group admired the moment.

The other entered it.

Bubbles begins on a hillside at the end of an Easter gathering, where a handful of children noticed bubbles drifting across the grass and immediately took off after them. They weren't particularly concerned with whether they caught them. They didn't stop to decide whether the running was practical, productive, or worth the effort.

They simply entered the moment.

Watching them raises a more significant question than whether we've retained a childhood sense of wonder:

Have we become content to watch a life God intended us to participate in?

Centered on Matthew 18:3–4 and James 1:22, Bubbles explores childlike humility, active faith, and the difference between observing truth and allowing it to become a lived response.

When Jesus tells His disciples to become as little children, He is not praising immaturity, ignorance, or impulsiveness. He points specifically toward conversion and humility. And when James tells believers to be “doers of the word, and not hearers only,” Scripture moves the conversation from simply recognizing what is true toward responding faithfully to it.

Together, participants will consider what can keep us safely on the sidelines—fear, self-consciousness, disappointment, comfort, control, or the desire to know the outcome before taking a step. They will explore the difference between wisdom and reluctance, faithful participation and impulsiveness, and hearing God's Word versus allowing it to shape the way we actually live.

This Gathering does not suggest that faithful participation means saying yes to everything, living in constant activity, or doing something dramatic. Sometimes participation means speaking or serving. Sometimes it means forgiving, waiting, praying, asking for help, honoring a boundary, or taking one quiet step of obedience no one else will ever see.

Instead, Bubbles asks a quieter and more personal question:

Is there something God has already made clear that we have become content to admire, consider, or postpone rather than live?

We do not have to guarantee the result before we respond.

We do not have to know every step before taking the faithful one already within reach.

And perhaps childlike faith sometimes looks less like having fewer questions and more like humbly trusting the One who calls us enough to participate.

A Gathering Made Ready for You

The Hearthside Gatherings were created to make meaningful time around Scripture feel both substantial and approachable.

You do not need to write a lesson, develop discussion questions, or figure out how to turn a roomful of women into a Bible study.

It has already been gathered for you.

Inside Bubbles, you'll find a complete printable experience designed to move naturally from welcome and Scripture into story, conversation, and personal reflection.

Your download includes:

• The complete Participant Packet
• Original Bubbles essay
• Primary and secondary Scripture readings
• Around the Table discussion questions
• Return to This Truth closing reflection
• Two-page Personal Reflection, From Watching to Participating
• Complete Host Guide
• Invitation
• Table Card
• Scripture Card
• Printable candy bar wrapper
• Start Here Printing Guide
• Permission to Gather guide
• Printer-friendly materials where appropriate

The Personal Reflection brings the question directly into the participant's own life: Where have I become an observer? What might humility require me to lay down? And what truth am I ready to stop merely hearing and begin living?

Gather Around a Table—or Begin Right Where You Are

A Hearthside Gathering can be used with a church group, women's ministry, small group, Sunday school class, book-club-style gathering, a few friends around a kitchen table, or simply on your own.

The Host Guide provides gentle direction without requiring you to become a teacher. The discussion questions are designed to encourage thoughtful conversation rather than search for a single “right” answer.

And if gathering a group isn't practical right now, the Participant Packet can also be worked through individually as a personal study and reflection.

Simple to Prepare

Everything is delivered digitally so you can print what you need at home or through your preferred print service.

The included Start Here guide walks you through the pieces and printing recommendations, while the Permission to Gather guide explains how the materials may be printed and shared for your gathering.

Bring the packets.

Set the table.

Maybe make something good to eat.



And allow a hillside full of bubbles to begin a conversation about where we may have grown content to watch, what Christ's invitation to childlike humility actually asks of us, and the faithful response already within reach—even when we cannot control what happens next.