Bless the Little Children

   

Amanda at Three

   The story of Sarah in church at the age of three is naturally followed by a story of Amanda in church at the age of three. This time we were living in Plano, Texas. Both girls went to church with me and they stayed during the service. If either of them got wiggly or noisy, I would tell whichever one was misbehaving that I was going to take her out of the sanctuary and to the room with the other kids. And neither of them wanted that, I don't know why – they could play and not have Mom nagging them – but apparently they either did not want to play with the other children, or they truly wanted another chance to meet my expectations and that is a nice thought to latch onto for the rest of my years.

       Again, we usually sat in a pew that had no one else in it and the girls could roam a little bit, but not enough to be distracting to the rest of the congregation. 

       One Sunday Sarah and Amanda were with me and not being too disruptive – my attention was more on them than the service, but they were behaving themselves.

       So I don't know if I was listening to the sermon from the very beginning, or if my ear just picked up at this part, but the pastor was talking about how God loves everyone – everyone, not just the people sitting in the church right then following all the rules, but everyone – including the husband who sits in his car in the parking lot of the church every Sunday while his wife attends the service inside (I instantly pictured my Grandfather who read the paper in the car while my Grandmother went to the Episcopal church), including the child in the pew who is picking his nose in plain sight of everyone to see, including.....Well I did not hear all of the examples, my heart started to race and I thought, “wouldn't it be just my luck that this is the one time that Amanda is listening to the minister?”

       And on cue, Amanda climbed past me and into the main aisle of the church. She stood in the aisle, stuck her finger up her nose and gave everyone a great big grin!

        “Yes, God loves you!” I whispered, and Amanda crawled back into the pew to sit beside me.

For the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.

307 20151103 Bless the Little Children