For the second year in a row I have been given something by a small child and asked if I could ‘give it to Jesus’! Last year a little boy at the crib service brought a picture he’d drawn for baby Jesus so we took it to the crib and laid it by the manger.
This year 6 year old Jake breezed into Kid’s Club and handed me a card. At first I assumed it was for me and went to say thank you but a raised eyebrow from Jake’s mum standing behind him warned me to take a second look. ‘To Jeasus’ it said in wobbly writing.
Well, what would you have done?
It’s kind of rude to open someone else’s post so I stammered a bit and eventually said ‘Thank you Jake, that’s really kind, I’ll make sure he gets it’.
Two things really touched me about this exchange. The first was Jake’s wide-eyed total confidence that I would be able to pass on his card to Jesus. The second is that I am deeply honoured by that association.
Later I did, in fact, open Jake’s card. It said ‘Dear God (crossed out) Jeasus’ Merry Christmas and Happy New Year ‘love from Jake’.
Brilliant! The child is a genius, everyone all around is madly sending cards to one another to celebrate the birth of Christ and Jake is the only person I know to have actually sent a birthday card to the person whose birthday it actually is. We can learn a lot from children, no wonder Jesus said ‘Unless you become like a child, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
‘Thank you Jake’ – and that comes from Me and Jesus!