Tuesday,
June 12, 2018
One day some
parents brought their little children to Jesus so he could touch and bless
them. But when the disciples saw this,
they scolded the parents for bothering him.
Then Jesus called for the children and said to the disciples, “Let the
children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who
are like these children. I
tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child
will never enter it.” Luke 18:15-17(NLT)
One of the delights of being
a pastor is watching the children develop into worshippers. If you pay attention at the end of a service,
a child will come up to the pastor, or someone else in the congregation and deliver
a masterpiece of a drawing made during a sermon. I’ve been the recipient of many such wonderful
drawings.
One of the little preschool girls
in our church is into taking sermon notes right now. I suspect her wise parents would not think of
coming to church without blank paper and crayons. This past Sunday this aspiring artist treated
me to what was on her mind during my sermon on Jesus’ confrontation with the
Pharisees, and Jesus dealing with his own family thinking he’d lost his
mind. Miss Hadley Jane was thinking
about decorating Christmas trees.
Now I’m no mind-reader, but
you don’t need a PhD for this one; this little one loves Christmas and all the
joy of that season. It’s 90 degrees in
North Carolina this time of year, but this (almost) 5-year-old is ready to string
some lights and deck those halls!
I haven’t had time to have
Hadley’s artwork interpreted by the artisan guild yet, but what struck me about
this particular drawing was the prominence of the three main characters. I’m assuming that’s Daddy at the top of the
ladder, and Mommy with Hadley Jane below at the decoration box. Now it may be a decoration box…or perhaps
a manger; last year at Christmas, little brother Connor was only three months
old! What’s unmistakable is the smiles that
tell us it’s a happy time.
What I almost missed are the
ten other people in this picture. They
are drawn with yellow and light green…so background-like, nearly invisible. But when I scanned the picture to display it
here, the scanner made the other decorators more prominent. And, on every face, a Christmas smile! Through the artistic eyes of a worshipping
child in the pew this past Sunday we are treated to the bedrock truth of the
Gospel; the message of Christ is joy to the world!
You’ve got to keep your eyes
wide open and listen as much with your heart as your ears, but the heart of a
child, fresh from being created with the image of God, and not nearly enough
time to sin-away that image, will always reveal something about being connected
to our Creator that you need to hear. I’m
glad I didn’t miss church this past Sunday; I would have missed an important
meeting with Jesus through the eyes of one of His special little worshippers. Guess I’m going to have to be on my toes to
see as high as she does.
For You Today
When you drove to church this past
Sunday…or any Sunday…was it with the hope that you just might meet Jesus there
in some other, less boring way than you expected?
Go to VIDEO
[1] Title Image: Drawing used with permission
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