“What do we do when you first get there and
you haven’t had breakfast?”
“We make pancakes.”“And what color are those pancakes?”
“Pink.”
OK. She was off and running now.
“Do we sometimes take walks?”
“Yes.”
“And do we ever play over in 40 steps?” (I had to explain that 40 Steps is Josiah’s name for the vacant lot next door).
“Yes.”
Not
much extra information coming out of her mouth yet. I decided to throw in a little test.
“And after we play we go inside and take a
nap, right?”
I figured
that would get some kind of rise out of her.
She never wants to take a nap.
But what do I know? She flashed
her smile, cocked her head and just as sweetly as she could muster, she said, “Yes.”
Now
wait a minute. She must not have heard
me. I tried talking a little faster.
“And we sometimes we play in the back yard. What do we do out there?”“We plant stuff with Nani.”
OK. More info, but suddenly I’m out of the picture altogether. I tried,
“What else do you play with that is hanging up out there?”
“The swing.”
“Right. And what does one of them look like?”
“A horsie.”
“Very good, and then we come inside and take a nap, right?”
“Yes.”
Aargh. No nap in reality, but I think by now she had
sensed the humor of the moment and was actively going there.
“Do we practice dancing because you said I
could dance with you at your wedding?”“Yes.”
“And then we take a nap?”
“Yes.”
Of course.
“What do we do when we go out in the front
yard?”“We play ring-around-the-rosie.”
“Want to play it now?”
That
got a rise out of everyone. She climbed
down from the stool. Kiara was quick to
grab a hand. I asked the boys on the
front row if they wanted to play, and they jumped right in. And we did it. Played a round of ring-around-the-rosie right
there in the front of the church. And when
we got to the “all fall down” part, we all fell down right there. Except for Cailyn. She very calmly and sweetly to a seat on the
front pew to wait for all the silliness to end.
Then she returned to her perch on the stool. Breathlessly I asked,
“And then what do we do?”
And
from the congregation came a chorus of, “Take a nap.”
And from Cailyn? “Yes.”
I suppose the interchange made its point. And not just about the need to take a
nap. The teaching was centered on the
decision of two disciples in John’s chapter one to follow Jesus after having an
opportunity to spend a day with him.
What did they do with him? What
did say? What would you want to say or
do if you got that chance? Our kids’
prayer went like this: Jesus, help us learn how to spend time with you, even
when we can’t see you. Amen.
Oh, yes.
During our encouragement time that followed the kid’s sermon, someone
asked me if Cailyn was going to preach today.
Puzzled, I turned around. She was
still sitting proudly on my stool. So I asked
her, “Are you going to preach today?”
She smiled broadly and replied, “Yes.”
Of course. So I asked, “And what
are you going to preach about to all these people? What will you tell them?” She pondered for a moment or two before
brightening and shouting, “No roaches!”
Now there’s a great sermon title if I ever heard one.
John 1:37-39 says, “When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning
around, Jesus saw them following and asked, ‘What do you want?’
They
said, ‘Rabbi’ (which means Teacher), ‘where are you staying?’ 'Come,’ he replied, ‘and you will see.’
So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour. “
Father, thank you for the offer to come and
see what it is like to abide with you.
Amen.
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