What Day Did God Make Beer?

I neither drink alcohol nor do I condone drinking alcoholic beverages, but you would not have known it in Sunday school that day.

We had been in Iceland for about six years. I was feeling really good about my language abilities, too good. Pride goes before a fall.

At that time, our children’s program was split into only two groups. Patrick taught the older children, while our missionary partner Michelle and I taught the younger children. The younger kids had been learning about creation for weeks, maybe months. The concept of a Creator making the world was novel to them, and it was truly fun to teach.

At the end of the series, I decided to have a massive review game to celebrate. To be completely honest, I wanted to show off what our little guys had learned to the older kids and my husband, the great Bible teacher. The older kids observed and sometimes took part as the game progressed.

I would say, “What day did God make…?”

The children would raise their hands and answer. Patrick and Michelle stood at the back of the classroom as judges.

The game went well at first. We went in order in the beginning. “What day did God make the heaven and the earth?”

“The first day!” a child replied with a raised hand.

After reviewing the days in order, I switched it up to really challenge the children and maybe show off my teaching abilities a little. I asked, “What day did God make whales?” (day five), followed by “What day did God make apples?” (day three). Things were getting exciting. The younger children were showing off to the older children. They knew the days that God made things, and it was cool.

As the excitement escalated in the classroom, I asked my next question. “What day did God make bears?” At least that’s what I meant to ask. In Icelandic, björn means bear. Bjór means beer. With the thrill of growing fun and the victory of our successful game in my voice, I actually asked the children in our Sunday school class, “What day did God make beer?”

Game over.

After a brief moment of utter silence, the class erupted into gales of laughter. “God made beer! Vicki said God made beer!” Yes. Yes, I did.

God did not, in fact, make beer. Did that matter right then? Nope. All my hopes and dreams of showing off my linguistic and educational skills in front of the older children and my husband shattered like a glass of frothy liquid dropped onto the floor, leaving a sticky, smelly mess.

Patrick and Michelle stood in the back of the classroom, shaking their heads and wildly gesturing the universal symbols for “NO!” Alas, it was too late. I said that God made beer.

Twenty years later, I still slow down my sentences when I say bear, just in case.