From the hand of a child

At the close of a wonderful day of worship I moved from our sanctuary to our Commons, the place where we meet and greet after worship.  As usual, a short line formed to share their thoughts on our morning worship experience or to fill me in on something going on in their lives. As usual, those in the line spanned a wide range ages and life stories. But, yesterday something very unusual and unexpected happened.  One of the couples in line had their children at their side.  Their two young girls ran up and gave my wife and me wonderful hugs filled with love and joy.  Their young son walked up to me and showed me small bag of plastic Easter eggs. You could tell that they had instantly become a prized possession.  He then surprised me by reaching into the bag, pulled out a bright yellow egg and showed it to me.  He explained to me that each egg special because it had a piece of candy in it.  I smiled and told him that these were great eggs and I knew he must like them a lot. He nodded his head with exuberance and in the instant when I thought he was about put the egg back in his bag he instead lifted it higher toward me.  “It’s for you,” he said with a huge smile.  With that he closed his bag and the family headed out for their day.  No one had told the boy to give me this unexpected gift.  He did it as an act of love. There were a number of wonderful things that transpired at our church on Easter morning, but I do not think I will ever forget the precious Easter gift given by a child. On a day when we celebrate God’s great grace gift this little boy provided a living demonstration of an unmerited gift of love.