The Little Children

Last week on Ash Wednesday, our supporting church, Hollywood Presbyterian, had a nighttime service. We normally have tutoring time on Wednesday nights, but we decided beforehand that we would invite kids from the neighborhood to the service instead of having tutoring. We gathered kids into our cars and headed out to the service. Our next door neighbor came, as well as a high schooler and her 5 year old brother from down the street. Also attending was our friend Angel, a 5-year-old whom the 4 of us love dearly.

As we went into the service, we had to break into two groups, one sitting in front of the other. Angel was sitting on Jen's lap and asking her lots of questions, like, "Is this where Jesus lives?" He ended up falling asleep during the sermon and was snoring. Our next door neighbor actually fell asleep as well. I looked back at the pew behind me and saw Angel asleep on Jen's lap, Odalys drifting to sleep, and my other roommate Shelton getting heavy eyelids. (In all of our defense- it was a very early morning and in general we were pretty tuckered out!) I thought to myself, "Oh, no, they're dropping like flies. We're not going to make it through the whole service!"

Well, we made it through the whole service, to the part where we went up to take communion and have ashes put on our foreheads. The girl sitting next to me looked over at me and asked, "Is it okay if we go up, too?" "Of course!" I replied, "Everyone is welcome." And as I sat there, pondering the wonder of communion and of Christ's love for us, I almost cried out of joy. God does not care which neighborhood these children came from, He loves them. I saw God's love so clearly as I watched our kids walk up to the front to receive communion. No matter what state we entered the sanctuary in, God received us that day as we received Him. God didn't care that some of us fell asleep or even snored through the sermon- He welcomed the little children to Him on that night. This is by far one of my most favorite memories with the kids this year.