I wished I could have taken a picture of the precious little boy I watched in nursery this morning, but somehow I think parental permission might be in order before launching images of sweet kiddos into the world of blogs. I'm starting to notice something significant about this journey towards gratitude. It seems as though when the Lord impresses a moment of thanksgiving upon me, He saturates me with this thinking for the rest of the day and often on into the week and month to come. This morning we discussed the end of 1 Samuel in Sunday school and it seemed to me a great picture of the life of David versus Saul marked by humility and pride. Both David and Saul are "brought low" many times in this book, but it seems that while Saul pridefully resisted the correction of God, David humbly received the correction and the mistreatment brought to him throughout the lifetime of Saul. From the beginnings of David's life as a shepherd to serving a known enemy to running for his life, it appears as though the mark of humble dependence upon the work of God in his life is what contributed to his being a man after God's own heart. As I look around at modern Christian leaders it seems there is a startling lack of humility in their lives. I know that I pray for Jay to rightly discern the Word of truth, to faithfully speak it and to remain humbly dependent upon God in all things. I've begun a new study in 1 Corinthians and the first two chapters hit you smack in the face with "For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power...For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." (1 Corinthians 1:17; 2:2) So how does this relate to a strange picture of a rather broken-down nursery? Well, this morning I was just a tiny bit disgruntled at having to serve my time in the nursery. I mean, after all, I don't have any little ones left in the nursery, right? (And Debbie doesn't have any little ones wanting to make felt flowers....) Anyway, when I showed up for baby duty there was only one little boy. The rest of the account might sound a bit arrogant but please understand that only because of the teaching, correcting and enabling of the Holy Spirit with which God had been saturating my life, was I able to proceed in obedience. I could have easily put the little boy, Charlie, in the other nursery with all the rowdy toddlers and been on my way to listen to the sermon, but I knew that Charlie has had a rather troubling transition from the sweet side of Mommy to the stress-induced nursery. He has stood in the corner and cried for weeks only to win escape to his frazzled young parents. I decided my calling today was to show Charlie the joys of nursery attendance so his parents could sit among adults and participate in spiritual endeavors that don't involve wiping noses and changing diapers. May I just say that when we obey the call of humbly serving those God has directed us to, it is such a joyful experience. I had so much fun coaxing Charlie into trusting me and acting like a complete lunatic in order to entertain him. His sweet little smile through those tear-stained eyes was a beautiful blessing. And in a true form of miracle, we made it to the end of service. It only took about 23 vanilla wafers, 37 readings of "where is the puppy?", and 43 games of peek-a-boo, but his parents emerged spiritually charged for the week and Charlie accomplished one of his very early life goals. It is a true gift from God to be filled with His joy when serving the least of these.
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