Chasing the Children...At Church

          Church is always interesting with little kids. Our church has what it calls ‘A Time with the Younger Church’ where our pastor or other members call the kids forward to tell them a special Bible story and has a little prayer then sends them back to their seats. This is sometimes quite nerve racking for me. One day they were talking about Noah and the Ark and did any of the children know about Noah. My little Adam’s hand shoots into the air and he proudly announces that he does know about Noah, as a matter of fact he knows about both Noah’s because they are both in his preschool class. He didn’t understand the rest of the story that was being told because there are no large boats in the preschool room but the congregation had a ball with that. We went home and brushed up on our Bible stories after that.

           My children attend Sunday school. It runs from 9:30 until about 10:20, in time to be out for church to start. Our church is less than a block from our home so we walk. I wandered over to church about 10:10 just to wait on my boys to be finished. I was walking up and down the hallways just spending time in the quiet when from behind me I hear "You get back here!" and I turn in time to see my sons' elderly Sunday school teacher cross my hallway for another at breakneck speed, for her anayway. As my three are the only ones in her class, I have a pretty good idea who she’s chasing.

 

          One particular Sunday was not what I’d call fun in any sense of the word but it’s worth writing about. During Joys and Concerns a little boy waved for the microphone. What he said made me ache to my core. "My mom died and I cried a lot because she was my only mom." He was sitting with his two older sisters, grandmother and aunt and uncle. They all began to cry and I felt for them. In the midst of this I felt three little pairs of arms wrap around me and knew that my sons were holding on to me to keep me safe and keep me here.