One Wednesday night in church, a lady who works with a Christian school was talking about some of the prayers and comments of some of the little ones, and it reminded me of a few things.
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When I was about 4 ½ years old and little sis Lil was about 2 ½, and baby brother Tommy was in the hospital struggling for his life, during our regular family prayer time, instead of saying the memorized prayer the smallest ones always said, she started praying in earnest for Tommy, and (I think, although my memory is not all that clear that far back) using some very adult sounding phrases. Us 3 older girls – myself, Mildred, and Leora, were irreverent enough to laugh at her, and she clammed right up. I believe we were later scolded severely for laughing.
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Now, when the above mentioned brother Tommy was about 4, we were at Bible school, part of the Free Methodist camp meeting in Brookville, PA. All the children were together for the opening part of the session. Apropos of nothing, Tommy piped up, “I know how the devil got to be the devil.” The Bible School director asked him, “How?” His response was, “He wanted to be God, so God made him the Devil.”
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Every Sunday morning, at the beginning of the worship service, our pastor has what he calls “Children’s Chat.” He has all the children who are willing to come to the front pew, and he has a little lesson for them. It’s always related to the topic of his sermon.
One Sunday morning he wanted to know if they would get excited if he promised to give one of them a dollar. Unfortunately, he had to bump it up to four dollars before any of them even became interested. He said, “Now, what do you have to do to get these four dollars?” He was, of course, trying to get them to say they just had to accept them (since he’d already promised).
He got all kinds of answers. “Do good things. Pray to get them.” One young fellow, about 3rd grade or so (who hadn’t come up to front pew, but was sitting back with his grandmother), said something about saying nice things. The pastor said, “OK, turn to your grandmother and tell her she looks nice.” He said, “You look nice that was against my will.” (all run together like that).
Finally one little guy, about kindergarten or first grade apparently came up with the right answer. I didn’t hear him, but the pastor said to him, “Come here.” He stood up. “Put out your hand.” He did so, and the pastor put the four dollars in his hand.
But the crowning point comes later. It’s necessary at this point to say that we have 12 people in our church who are going with a district team on a 2-week missions trip to Guatemala this summer. After the service, as people were leaving, I was just about to shake hands with the pastor, and this little fellow (the one who "accepted" the four dollars) came up. He handed the money to the pastor, saying, “This is for your Guatemala trip.”
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Blogger's note: Brother Tommy mentioned above is the father of missionary Suzanne several blogs back.
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2 comments:
I loved reading those memories! I didn't realize Tommy had such a struggle as a young boy.
Tommy was born with the valve from his stomach to his small intestine closed. He couldn't keep anything down, so, of course, the poor kid was starving to death, and had to have corrective surgery. It was a while after he was born before the cause of his problem was found, and he was six weeks old when he had the surgery. It was no doubt the time lapse that nearly cost him his life. Although he's not serving the Lord now himself, look at his daughter Suzanne, who would never have been otherwise.
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