God's shorthand

Good Morning All,

Laughter, chatter, giggles, jumping, singing, squeals of delight, excitement, wonder…just some of the treasures you will find if you stop by the church house any evening this week between 6:30 and 8:30p. The sanctuary, hallways and rooms take you up, up & away; soaring to the highest heights to experience God in a hot air balloon with Skylar the flying squirrel and “Scoop,” the Hot Air BallyHoo News reporter to guide you!

The real treasures are of course, the children themselves, producing some of the loudest and most enthusiastic responses to stories, questions and songs. Listening to the children share their understandings of what it means to follow God and to trust God as we make our way through the stories of Abraham & Sarah, Joseph & his brothers, Mary & Martha, Zaccheus and Peter, is a wonder to behold.

I am always amazed at how children “get it” when it comes to the meaning and message of so many stories. They have the uncanny knack to take the heart of a story and within a matter of minutes, they are somehow able to express its meaning in the simplest, purest, clearest and unmuddied of terms. Whereas you and I as adults make a much bigger deal out of our understanding and will mull over, brood over, ponder, think and pray about it for way too long as we grasp just the right words; that usually come out in the form of run on sentences and huge paragraphs! (see previous sentence :))

I’m not exactly sure how or why children are able to do this far better than most adults, but I so appreciate it; because when they do, we usually receive is a priceless gift of wisdom and insight. Art Linkletter hosted a television show of a bygone era with the quintessential title, “Kids Say the Darndest Things!” Let me give you an example…

Monday evening this week, all the children and adults explored the story of Abraham & Sarah and how God called them to move from all things familiar and set out for an unknown destination. The scriptures tell us they were obedient and followed God’s lead. The students in the adult class spent quite a bit of time struggling with how difficult this assignment would be, even if we knew it was from God. We wrestled with all that we would have to leave behind and admitted how difficult it was at times to fully trust God to take care of us without being offered any specifics in the contract.

But one young boy knew exactly what this story was all about as he summed it up, this way: “If God tells you to get into a hot air balloon…you get into a hot air balloon!” :) It’s as simple and profound as that! Duh!

The other day I was talking with a grandmother whose granddaughter had fallen and shattered her arm. Just before they were to take the child to the operating room, her grandmother leaned over the gurney and asked, “Who loves you?” To which the child replied, “You and Jesus!” Later on that same weekend a family friend stopped by to tell the child how sorry she was about her accident and how it must hurt; only to hear this response: “Not to worry, God’s got me!” :)

“Who loves you?” “You and Jesus!” “Not to worry, God’s got me!” This child truly “gets it!” Three short sentences using only 12 words to describe God’s love and care for us. And here we are with countless numbers of bibles, dictionaries and concordances chock-full of verse after verse after verse; probably using thousands upon thousands of words to convey a gazillion different ways of telling us how we are never beyond God’s love and care…Let’s hear it for God’s shorthand! “…And a little child shall lead them…” :)
Blessings, Joanne