The pastor shared the peace of God with the congregation and then asked the people to greet others by "passing the peace". We stood up and greeted those in front of us and behind us with handshakes, brief eye contact and a "peace be with you.". Not many moved up and down the aisles in this particular church, so in short order we were all sitting back down in our pews.......except for one young girl who was around 4 years old.
As we watched, she continued to come down the aisle and shake hands with those on the end of the pews. Her face lit up with joy with every handshake. She shook Joel's hand and moved on. Very quickly I felt a little tap on my shoulder and turned to see her small little hand reaching out to me from the pew behind. I turned and took her hand, blessing her, before she moved on.
It was not long before her mom came down the aisle and took her hand, whispering to her. As moms do, she firmly tried to get her to go back to their seat. The little one stubbornly stood firm until mom picked her up. The dismay on her sweet face let us know she was not happy about being interrupted from her morning task of reaching out to all the people she could and blessing them with the peace of God.
As I looked at her mom, I thought.....yes, that would have been me or Joel when our kids were small. Keep still, don't disrupt, and don't draw attention to yourself. But as a grandparent we saw things differently.. Truthfully, this child brought more life and joy to the service than anyone else had that morning! She was doing "the Father's business" by reaching out and putting a smile on everyone's face she greeted.
Such a simple way to share God's love. Blessing someone else with God's peace. Sometimes it may be the only verbal blessing a person receives on a given day. Often it is the only touch for those who live alone. And as it was with this little girl, she blessed these grandparents and probably a few more with an added dose of joy on a missing-our-family type of Sunday morning. I believe we were all changed in a small way by this child's desire to share the peace of God.
That is all it takes. A smile. Eye contact. A voice. A gentle touch. We were blessed to see the Father's love in the eyes of a child, passing the peace of God to all she could reach.
3 comments:
What a lovely story! We should all be more childlike in our faith - this little girl speaks volumes of how we should greet others with a heart full of joy!
GOD BLESS!
Thanks Sharon. Her message was so strong I had to share it.
Yes, I bet this is exactly what God had in mind when He said unless you are like one of these children, you will not see the kingdom of heaven. Beautiful reminder. ... Been storing up my comments for when I was able to leave them, so you get a few back to back from me. :)
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