I have a new friend. We’ll call him C. and he is three – maybe four – years old.
When I invited the children forward on Christmas Eve, C. was the buddy who sat next to me at the second service. As part of the sermon, we hid under a sheet and read a story with a flashlight. (Thank you to Karen G.’s ideation for that one.) As I was reading under the sheet, I would glance over at C., he would look up at me with a huge grin on his face, and just nod his head over and over. He was totally eating it up.
At the end of the children’s sermon, I handed out glow sticks to the kids, we said a glow stick prayer, and I sent them back to their parents. After the service, as we were greeting people on their way out, C. ran up to me, said merry Christmas, and thanked me for the glow stick. Then we gave each other a fist bump. The beginning of our friendship.
Today, after church, I stopped to talk to C. in fellowship hall. He yabbered and gabbered on and on about his new helicopter and how he slept with the glow stick and how now the glow stick has ran out of energy. “And what’s that?” pointing to a picture on the wall. “And what are you doing? Are you going to have a treat? You can have a treat like my treat. I’m jumping.”
As his parents insisted it was time for him to leave, C. followed me about fellowship hall for a few minutes, jumping and running and trying to convince me that the cinnamon rolls were really good. I’m glad to have a new friend.
there's no place like gnome. 
Leave a Reply