“I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."
~ Mark 10:15
God keeps bring kids into this thing…
For a very brief moment back in 1984, I was assigned to a military intelligence battalion of the 82nd Airborne Division at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. I was eventually transferred down the street to the 1st Special Operations Command, but before that transfer took place, I was sitting in a barracks dayroom talking with a bunch of other interrogator friends. By almost any measure of manliness, these were very tough, rough-edged men. And yet for all the muscle, machismo and testosterone swimming through that room, it is a precious moment of tenderness that afternoon I remember. The room was completely filled with the typical profanity, cigarette smoke and vulgar soldier talk until a pretty young mother walked into the room with a gorgeous little blonde haired girl in a frilly dress. The sweet little toddler walked shyly into the room, looked around for a moment and then, inexplicably, her whole face just lit up in a grin at all of us. She didn’t know any of us and we didn’t exactly know why, but for some strange reason, that little girl was just strangely happy to be in that room with all the soldiers. And before any of the cartoonishly macho soldiers in that room even realized they were doing it, all the cigarettes were put out, the profanity/vulgarity disappeared and every soldier in the room started winking, smiling and trying to capture the cheerful little girl’s attention. She redeemed the entire room with nothing but her attitude and a smile.
I thought of that long ago military moment as I came home from Leadership Team and Praise Team meetings at the church late last night. As I was walking through the garage at the apartment, a happy little boy walking with his parents made a particular point of pulling out his pacifier to loudly and directly say hello to me. He did it twice just to make sure I noticed and responded. His mother chuckled, shrugged her shoulders and muttered to me, “A very loud hello from a very little boy very excited to be up very late!” As I looked back at the little guy walking away, he gave me one last little smile and a cheerful wave. I couldn’t help but enjoy the moment. I was still smiling when I got upstairs to the apartment.
These are very good and very simple images of what we long to be as Christians. People around us ought to know, regardless of what is going on around us, that we’re happy just to be here, irrepressibly happy to be in this room full of soldiers, happy to be up late, happy to be in all the places we get to be, happy to be in our wonderful church, happy to be singing our songs, happy and saying hello to everyone we meet at work, happy just to be able to do whatever we get to do. We are called to be agents of joy and redemption in the room; cheering up the evening and cleaning up behavior just by being around.
We’re going to talk about all this childish, salty cheerfulness at length as things kick off at Elim this fall. In Nehemiah 8, the people of God, confronted at long last with the Word of God, were grieving and mourning over their sin and shortcomings. And in verse 10, Nehemiah tells them to stop grieving, grab a burger* and realize that “the joy of the LORD is your strength.” I like that stuff – we’re going to ponder that this fall.
May God help us all fully understand the blessings we enjoy! May the joy in our hearts express itself in ways we cannot contain! May the joy of the Living God truly be our strength and song!
Amen.
*Okay, this is just a bit of Hanson paraphrase.
