Many many days I learn more from children than I have
learned from any adult. I have
laughed at words from children’s mouths.
I have cringed at words from children’s mouths. I have gotten all teary-eyed at words
from children’s mouths.
Being an only child, The Girl often had to play alone. She was pretty good at it. She had lots of “babies”—mainly Cabbage
Patch Kids—remember those? One day
when she was maybe somewhere from 4-6 years old, I was walking down the hall
and heard singing from her room. The Girl would use her dolls as her playmates. On this particular day she was
playing church and as I realized the singing was going to continue, I managed
to get to my tape player (yes, that was the days of tape players and nothing
else) and tape the audio portion without her knowing. Many times since then I’ve listened to the tape and
smiled, but honestly lately as I’ve thought about it on occasion, she wasn’t
totally wrong with her wording.
She was singing, “Blessed Insurance, Jesus is mine. Oh what a full taste of glory
divine.” Okay so many of you know
it’s “Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine.
O what a foretaste of glory divine.” If you think about it , though, having salvation is “insurance”
and it’s “blessed” and His glory when you have a full taste is certainly glory
divine. So all these years later,
I still can tell that story and be blessed just as I was on that day.
So this past Sunday The Girl's helper was absent so I went into the 4 and 5 year old Sunday
School class that The Girl teaches to "help" . After the lesson of the 10 lepers
who were healed and only one came back to say “thanks”, there was a prayer
time. I still say God has to smile
when he hears his children pray, especially those little ones. It made me teary-eyed. Some of the children want to pray aloud
and some want to just pray in their hearts. There is nothing better than hearing them pray. One child was thankful for
everyone—even called most of the everyones by their names.
And that child has a world of everyones in her life. I wondered how many folks that child
knew but the child remembered to be thankful for all of them. Really. I am blessed when I hear those little voices sincerely
talking to the Lord. After that,
The Girl gave a handout of a paper with space for a drawing that said at the
bottom “I thank God for____________________.” Okay so there’s wonderful things to be thankful for and
the children are really into the project.
There’s the earth, myself, my mama, my heart, people that don’t die in a
fire, and a cross. So I compliment
all of these and prepare to go to the copier to make more copies. They like this project. As I’m going out, I hear a child ask
The Girl how to spell something and realize that on the cross picture it’s
going to say “I thank God for Jesus dying on the cross.” Well wow, I thought the cross would
represent church or something like that but, no--thanks for Jesus dying on the
cross. From the mouth and heart of a 5 year old child. Hmmm. I return from my copying and comment on
all the pictures and realize a yellow arch has been drawn over the top of the
cross picture. I say, “Well,
you’ve drawn a sun over your cross.”
To which the child replies as he looks at me with a disbelieving face
that I could be so wrong, “NO, that’s the Holy Spirit.” Well duh. How could I ever miss that? Really. I
looked at The Girl and she just smiled and nodded her head with that
incredulous look I have learned to recognize through the years.
So that morning I was reminded that if it’s so easy for
little children to talk so freely to the Heavenly Father, it should be just as
easy for me. I realized that yes, we can be thankful
for the earth, ourselves, our mamas, our hearts, and even that no one died in
a fire. I was thinking that things
such as fires can represent a lot of fear in my life. I can be thankful that Jesus will calm those fears. And I realized, too, that I fall so
very short in sharing what God did for me by sending his son, Jesus, to die on
the cross for me. If a child can
share so confidently, why can’t I?
Why DON’T I?
Yes, this past Sunday morning I was blessed. And that is only one of the reasons I
am thankful this day.
“Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for
of such is the kingdom of God.”
Mark 10:14
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